The Supreme Court has made its final decision not to take up the case of closing the Chicago Shipping Canal to in an effort to keep the voracious invasive Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes where they are considered a threat to fisheries.. That doesn't mean the issue has been settled, though.Attorney General Mike Cox is still pushing to put pressure on President Obama and congressional leaders to take action on the matter. New York Senator Chuck Schumer is asking the EPA, Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a study to determine
what the economic and ecological impacts would be on the Great Lakes if the carp establishes a significant population.State officials and scientists already claim that the aggressive fish would destroy the state's 7-billion dollar fishing industry by devouring food resources utilized by native fish. Cox, meanwhile, is still collecting petition signatures on his web site at StopAsianCarp.com.
Two species of Asian carp -- the Bighead (upper right) and Silver carp, which can grow to five feet in length and weigh 100 pounds (45 kg) -- are
seen as the primary danger to the lakes' $7 billion fisheries. These fish were imported by Southern catfish farmers in the 1970's to remove algae and suspended matter out of their ponds. During large floods as early as the 1970s, many of the catfish farm ponds overflowed their banks, and the Asian carp were released into local waterways in the Mississippi River basin.The Asian carp have since been reproducing in the Mississippi River and its tributaries, slowly spreading upstream and into the Illinois River which connects to Lake Michigan. The carp have
become the most abundant species (Silver carp right) in some areas of the River. These fish are are the river systems' illegal immigrants with no Green Card and once they establish residency, they can eat you out of house and home.Scientists fear they would consume plankton and other small life forms, crowding out other fish species. "They just eat so much," says David Ullrich, executive director of the Great Lakes and St.
Lawrence Cities Initiative. "They're like the locusts of the river."That's what makes them so dangerous to the lakes. Asian carp aren't direct predators, but they eat plankton, which knocks out the bottom layers of the food chain. If they were to successfully establish themselves in the Great Lakes and start breeding, they could utterly disrupt the existing ecosystem, potentially starving out the trout and other native fish that make the Great Lakes a tourism hot spot.
In an attempt to prevent the carp from entering the Great Lakes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. EPA, the State of Illinois, the International Joint
Commission, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have worked together to install and maintain a permanent electric barrier between the fish and Lake Michigan. Asian Carp DNA has been found beyond the electric barriers, which puts the fish dangerously near Lake Michigan. Various solutions have been examined and would be put into effect if Michigan can get the court's approval. So far, it has not been able to do that in two attempts. Michigan has taken their case for the third time now to the courts, winding up in front of the Supreme Court.The action marked Michigan's third Supreme Court setback this year. In
January and in March, the justices rejected separate state requests for an order to close two Chicago-area waterway locks and for other steps that would keep the carp out of the lakes.In the latest request, Michigan had sought to reopen Supreme Court cases that dated back to the 1920s and involved the Chicago-area waterway system and how much water can be diverted from Lake Michigan.
Michigan had sought to reopen the litigation by arguing the Chicago-area
waterways now serve as a conduit for the carp to pass into Lake Michigan, threatening ecological and economic havoc to the Great Lakes.Michigan also had requested that the federal government, the state of Illinois and Chicago's sewer authority take steps to stop the carp migration into Lake Michigan.
Solicitor General Elena Kagan, representing the federal government, opposed Michigan's request. She said the carp issue
was unrelated to the decades-old cases.Instead of trying to reopen the Supreme Court cases, the proper forum for Michigan would be to bring a lawsuit before a federal judge, she said.
Source:
Reuters,"Court turns down Michigan over Great Lakes carp", accessed April 27, 2010
WTVB, "Supreme Court Will Not Take Up Asian Carp Issue", accessed April 27, 2010
EPA, "Asian Carp and the Great Lakes", accessed April 27, 2010
Time, "Asian Carp in the Great Lakes? This Means War!", accessed April 27, 2010
