CHICAGO, Ill. — First, the bad news: A commercial fisherman boated a live, 8-pound Asian silver carp late last month just a few miles from Lake Michigan and well beyond electronic barriers intended to keep the invasive fish from entering the Great Lakes.

 

The good news: Nearly three weeks of intensive scanning and fishing in the area yielded no other evidence of more carp, giving local, state and national officials along with Great Lakes lovers a much-needed sigh of relief.

That’s because the worst scenario – that carp will invade Lake Michigan and destroy the habitat enjoyed by fish such as walleye, perch, coho and others native to the freshwater lake – appears to be staved once again.

Two main species of Asian carp, the silver and big head varieties, have taken over the Illinois River and several other tributaries within the Mississippi River watershed during the past 15 years or so.

The fish are voracious plankton eaters, gobbling up the food sources that native fish depend on and slowly making it impossible for those species to survive.

Fish experts say if the Great Lakes get infested with carp, eventually the multibillion-dollar freshwater seafood industry as we know it now will be destroyed.

The carp caught on June 22 in the Calumet River was about 9 miles south of an entrance to Lake Michigan, but 28 miles north of electronic barriers installed in the Sanitary and Ship Canal near Romeoville, in the southwest suburbs. It is the second time a live Asian carp was discovered on the “wrong” side of the barriers, and it took several months by a Southern Illinois University lab to determine that the bighead carp caught in 2010 was spawned in Arkansas.

The SIU lab is conducting tests now on the recent carp catch and is expected to have an idea of where the silver carp came from by the end of July. Seven years ago, scientists theorized the bighead fish accidentally came to the area via a shipment of farm-raised catfish, and somehow landed in the Calumet River.

The recent find accents the need for authorities to act more quickly to determine what additional actions should be taken to secure the Great Lakes habitat. A report completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on what steps could be taken to further protect the Lakes from  carp has been held up by Pres. Donald Trump’s administration since its scheduled release in late February.

Environmentalists fear the report holdup is tied to planned budget cuts, noting that the administration has zeroed out a $5 million-a-year allocation to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative that has been keeping tabs on maintaining the barriers and tracking progress of the carp through numerous waterways that feed toward Lake Michigan. 

 

The environmental group Alliance for the Great Lakes said while federal, state and local agencies “appeared to be breathing a sigh of relief” that no other Asian carp were beyond the barriers, officials and the Trump administration should act quicker.

“The situation should be a wake-up call for agencies that have become complacent while Asian carp populations march steadily toward Lake Michigan. Instead, it appears to be met by government agencies and administration officials with a collective yawn,” the group said.