Bad news fish
-
- June
- 26
This is a bad-news fish story but one with a must-see video. The fish are Asian carp, voracious eaters that were introduced as pond cleaners in Arkansas but now threaten the health of the Great Lakes.
Some LoHud readers may recall various lake communities in the area introducing carp into their water bodies to eat the weeds clogging their lakes. Those were/are sterile grass carp – they don’t reproduce.
The Asian carp, though, are rapid reproducers, in the words of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
“Researchers expect that Asian carp would disrupt the food chain that supports the native fish of the Great Lakes. Due to their large size, ravenous appetites, and rapid rate of reproduction, these fish could pose a significant risk to the Great Lakes Ecosystem.”
They’re also bruisers. Check out this video. (Click on “Giant Asian Carp Flying Menaces” in the play list to the right if it doesn’t start playimg. It took a while to load but it’s worth the wait.) There’s also this video.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 at 2:39 pm by Mike Risinit.
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Journal News staff writer Greg Clary writes Earth Watch, reporting on environmental issues in the lower Hudson region. Clary has been a reporter, editor and columnist at the Journal News since 1988 and has covered police and courts, transportation, municipal government, development and the environment in the Lower Hudson Valley, among other topics. 
Laura Incalcaterra covers the environment, open space and zoning and planning issues for The Journal News. A Boston College graduate, Laura grew up in Rockland, attended East Ramapo schools and has worked for The Journal News since 1993. Laura has written features and covered North Rockland, crime, government and a host of other issues.
Mike Risinit covers Patterson and Kent in Putnam County, as well as environmental topics touching on the Hudson River and the Great Swamp. Risinit has been a reporter at The Journal News since 1998.
Thanks for raising this here. This is really important. There is a real need to create a barrier between the Mississippi River system and the Great Lakes system. The two are connected by a man-made canal in Illinois. Currently, there is a temporary barrier, but a minimal amount of federal funding is needed to make the barrier permanent.
The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA, or “worda” in Hillspeak) contains the necessary funding as a part of the legislation. WRDA has been passed by both the House and Senate in slightly different forms and are ironing out the differences (the Asian Carp barrier is not one of them, I hear). More information here: http://www.citizenscampaign.org/campaigns/asian_carp.htm