Great Lakes left to die

Jack_Berry

Moderator Emeritus
was told that some agency(i don't remember which one) had poisoned the river just above where the carp are nesting. no carp were found poisoned. i'll try to find a confirmation. maybe the poison went the wrong way.

here it is.....may 25th

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No Asian carp found in latest fish kill

May 25, 2010 6:27 PM | No Comments

Six days. One hundred thousand pounds of dead fish. No Asian carp.
Now what?
Biologists wrapped up another exhaustive search for Asian carp in Chicago's waterways Tuesday, an orchestrated massive fish kill designed to test the validity of DNA results that had indicated the presence of the fish in the Calumet-Sag Channel.
Failing to find even a single Asian carp was good news for those who feared the aggressive invasive species was within striking distance of Lake Michigan. But the results further complicate an already divisive political issue and raise new questions about what may have triggered positive DNA samples in the first place.

"We don't question the methodology of the eDNA research; we look at it like one tool to help us make the right choices," said Chris McCloud, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. "We'll continue to use eDNA to see what risks exist to the Great Lakes."
Researchers tracking the movement of Asian carp up the Chicago river system have been using a method of DNA sampling called eDNA, or environmental DNA, which involves collecting cells commonly found in fish scales, feces and urine. The DNA is then matched against a global database for Asian carp and independently verified.
Researchers have discovered a couple dozen carp samples among the 1,000 or so DNA samples taken from Chicago's waterways over the past year, an indication that carp might be moving north toward Lake Michigan.
The problem with eDNA sampling, however, is that it can't determine whether the cells come from a live fish or dead fish, prompting many different interpretations of the data and fueling the debate around its use.
"Much more needs to be known about eDNA before it becomes the basis for another massive fish kill," said Mark Biel, executive director of the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, an organization that has fought to keep Chicago's waterways open to shipping traffic.
McCloud said the state is not ready to say Chicago's waterways are free of bighead and silver carp. Scientists will take some time to study the more than 100,000 pounds of fish, comprising at least 40 species, removed from the channel. Those fish will be destroyed and sent to a landfill.


 
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Jack_Berry

Moderator Emeritus
seperate story from the chicago tribune.




Locks won't keep Asian carp out of lake, Army Corps says

Agency rejects plan for scheduled closings to stop invader's migration





By Joel Hood, TRIBUNE REPORTER 8:17 p.m. CDT, June 3, 2010




Chicago's navigational shipping locks will remain open — for now.
The Army Corps of Engineers announced Thursday it has scrapped a proposal to close the locks as much as four days a week to stop the migration of Asian carp into Lake Michigan. Officials said the scheduled lock shutdowns, which would have severely restricted boat and cargo shipments, would not be an effective deterrent in keeping the invasive species out of the Great Lakes.
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"There was no alternative or combination of alternatives that … would lower the risk of Asian carp establishing a self-sustaining population in Lake Michigan to an acceptable level," the Army Corps said in a three-year study, released Thursday, that looked at the state and federal governments' handling of the carp threat. "In other words, there was not a high probability that recommending regularly scheduled closures would reduce the risk."
The Army Corps, however, wants to maintain the ability to temporarily close locks when biologists use fish poisons or other methods to go after carp, a scenario that played out last month when officials shut down a portion of the Calumet-Sag Channel during a massive organized fish kill.
Industry experts said even that six-day closure of the O'Brien Lock and Dam resulted in shipping delays and increased costs for many cargo haulers moving between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River.
"The one advantage we have in Illinois is that river, it's what keeps us competitive in the world," said Jim Robbins, board member for the Illinois Corn Growers Association. "Anything that's going to close or shut down these locks is going to affect what we do."
Asian carp is a voracious fish that feeds on aquatic vegetation and has steadily moved up the Illinois River toward Lake Michigan for the last decade. In 2002, state officials unveiled a first-of-its-kind underwater electric barrier near Romeoville to keep Asian carp from migrating north.
Army Corps officials said Thursday they are at work on a similar underwater barrier 10 miles downriver that would deter carp movement using tiny bubbles, light and sound.
"The technology to do this is not new, but this will be the first time we'll be able to gauge its effectiveness on Asian carp," said Col. Vincent Quarles, commander of the Army Corps' Chicago district. "So, we'll see."
 

layoutshooter

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
The problem is that there is no natural connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system. There is also no real need any longer for those canals to be operating. There is rail now to carry bulk cargo. The Great Lakes are far too important to the region to just let them go for short term economic gain. The long term loss will far exceed those gains.
 

Jack_Berry

Moderator Emeritus
lots of barge traffic up and down the river. it is likely faster than using trains. used to do port co-ordination. csx had a low priority of dedicated trains of tractors and combines from racine to baltimore. if you have weeks to make a delivery or have regular like 5 trains a day from wyoming coal fields to racine power plant or hundreds of containers to move to and from la then all is good.
 
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OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
I remember the Sea Lamprey scare and recently it was those other little things, can't remember there name...they too were going to wipe out the Gr Lakes...but ole mother nature sometimes works wonders..
 

Darmstadter

Veteran Expediter
OVM - probably those Gobi fish or zebra mussels. There's stretches of beach along Lake Erie that are like walking on razors with those darn shells.
 

layoutshooter

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Thats them...those gobi's are ugly suckers..was catching the in Erie...

Lampry are still a major problem in the lakes. They are making it very difficult for the lake trout to rebound. It has been a very long slow fight. Gobi's don't see to be too big a problem, everything has learned to eat them. The zebra mussles are still a problem but a few things have learned to eat them.

Nothing will be able to take care of this new carp. It has already displaced almost all native fish on sections of the Mississippi. It will grow to massive sizes in the Great Lakes. In their native waters they can exceed 300lbs. They will wipe out most vegetation turning the lakes into mud pits.
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
Well Layout
Like the oil leak, there seems to be a reason why senators should be representing the states, not the people.
 

layoutshooter

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Well Layout
Like the oil leak, there seems to be a reason why senators should be representing the states, not the people.

Yeah, well, that is NEVER going to happen. Senators are there only to line their own pockets with special interest money no matter how they get there. They would do in the State, the People or both at the same time if it meant more money and power for them. :mad:
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
So where is Levin and Stabanow on this issue?

Shouldn't they with Reid come up with some sort of solution to tell the Corp and the other federal agencies to close the canals or they will cut funding to their agency?

You know they have some sort of power over this.

See Layout, I think it is a good environmental issue that should be on the dem's agenda, the cost to the "capitalist pigs" would be huge while saving the great lakes from a real pending disaster.

Where's the WWF and Sierra Club on this issue by the way?
 

layoutshooter

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
So where is Levin and Stabanow on this issue?

Shouldn't they with Reid come up with some sort of solution to tell the Corp and the other federal agencies to close the canals or they will cut funding to their agency?

You know they have some sort of power over this.

See Layout, I think it is a good environmental issue that should be on the dem's agenda, the cost to the "capitalist pigs" would be huge while saving the great lakes from a real pending disaster.

Where's the WWF and Sierra Club on this issue by the way?

All of our Washington types from the State want the locks closed. So does every biologist that I hunt with.

I have NO idea where the Sierra Club and the WWF are on this. I do know that EVERY sportsman's club in the State wants them closed as does Delta Waterfowl, WaterFowl USA, Duck's Unlimited, Trout Unlimited and any other group with any kind of real understanding what this monster can do the the Lakes.
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
I find it hard to believe that the washington types want anything to do with it.

If they really cared then with our Senior people in washington, then it wouldn't be an issue. What I mean Levin had no problem getting the DC taxi cab rates straight nor Dingle helping provide a push for GM and Ford with the "green" funding, which is all trivial in comparison.
 

layoutshooter

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
I find it hard to believe that the washington types want anything to do with it.

If they really cared then with our Senior people in washington, then it wouldn't be an issue. What I mean Levin had no problem getting the DC taxi cab rates straight nor Dingle helping provide a push for GM and Ford with the "green" funding, which is all trivial in comparison.

They all pay it "lip service" and then do what they are told. They will do nothing that interferes with the plans of those who own them. You would first have to assume that Dingle, Levin and Stabenow, care. They don't. They are as big a joke as Obama who is being paid off by his Chicago owners.
 
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