5 Great Lakes states, including Michigan, sue feds over Asian carp

Source: Associated Press

Despite being rebuffed twice by the U.S. Supreme Court, five states filed suit Monday with a lower court demanding tougher federal and municipal action to prevent Asian carp from overrunning the Great Lakes and decimating their fishing industry.

Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and Pennsylvania said in their complaint the situation had become more dire since a live bighead carp was found last month in a Chicago-area waterway only 6 miles from where it meets Lake Michigan — well past an electric barrier designed to block the voracious fish's path.

"Asian carp will kill jobs and ruin our way of life," Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said in a statement. "We cannot afford more bureaucratic delays — every action must be taken to protect the Great Lakes."

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in northern Illinois. It accuses the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago of creating a public nuisance by operating locks, gates and other infrastructure through which the carp could enter the lakes.

Read more: http://www.annarbor.com/news/5-great-lakes-states-including-michigan-sue-feds-over-asian-carp/

Interesting article:

Excerpt:

The discovery of a 20-pound carp in Lake Calumet on Chicago's South Side might make a federal judge more inclined to rule favorably, said Nick Schroeck, executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center at Wayne State University. Previously, Michigan and the other states based their request largely on DNA evidence that critics dismissed as unreliable.

"It's easier to make the case that there's a public nuisance when you have this actual, live fish," Schroeck said.

The states also have had more time to develop evidence that the federal government is handling the situation so poorly it violates laws prohibiting interstate movement of harmful species, Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which represents the Army Corps, is reviewing the suit and will file a response later, spokesman Charles Miller said. The Chicago water district also was studying the suit and had no immediate comment, said its attorney, Frederick Feldman.

Bighead and silver carp, both Asian varieties, were imported to Deep South fish farms and sewage lagoons in the early 1970s. They escaped into the Mississippi and have been migrating north since.

Prolific and aggressive, carp gobble plankton that form a crucial link in the aquatic food chain. Scientists say if they gain a foothold in the Great Lakes, they could starve out smaller fish that are prey for sport and commercial species such as salmon, walleye and whitefish.

the chinese will eat asian carp and the american`s won`t because of the fine bones. indiana also has asian carp in at least one river that flows into lake michigan.

They already suggest that one not consume more than one serving of Great Lakes fish per month.

Asian carp would be the last fish you'd see me consume out of the Great Lakes...

There's a reason the word 'bottom feeder' indicates something very negative.

More likely swim here, there and everywhere searching for food. They're like vacuum cleaners with pharyngeal teeth. It doesn't follow that they're garbage fish.

After cleaning the fish, butterfly it and dress with olive oil and lemon pepper. Preheat your oven to 425, and place a seasoned maple plank in it for 15 minutes, until hot. Remove the board, lay the fish on it, cover lightly with aluminum foil, and place back in the hot oven for 12-14 minutes, until the fish is sizzling. Remove from oven, throw the fish in the garbage, and eat the board.

;)

The last sentence is what makes the whole recipe come together.

Seven million tons of goods flow through annually, closing it would kill lots of jobs.

Michigan needs to find someone else to be their sacrificial lamb.

at the expense of a (still preventable!) ecological disaster.

What. A. Disappointment.

That canal links the great lakes to the entire inner continental river system east of the rockies.