Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Asian Carp past the electric fence?

It was on the news the other night that more Asian Carp DNA was found on the Lake Michigan side of the electric fence barrier that is supposed to stop their march to the Great Lakes.....

Not good.

I have zero confidence in that barrier. It's only a matter of time.

I second that.. Total waste of money and rescources..

Asian Carp DNA has been found on the LM side for quite well over a year now.

Just a keep it quiet scenario and blow every one else off.

I'll play devil's advocate here:

I'm not a big believer in the DNA in the water science. Pretty iffy from what I've read. I won't believe they're there until I see a fish that was captured on the Lake Michigan side.

Do I believe it's entirely possible they are there? You bet!

On the other hand it is possible they won't find the habitat favorable enough to become a problem. Time will tell.

How are the samples for DNA collected in the LK Michigan side?

Fish DNA can confirm presence, not size or age

Fish DNA is released into the water in several ways, including the shedding of mucous, feces and urine. Environmental DNA testing involves taking water samples and then filtering it for fragments of DNA, which then are amplified with lab tools so they can be confirmed as species-specific material.

What the DNA samples can't reveal is how many fish might be in an area or their size and age.

The scientists doing the work say a positive sample almost surely means a fish was in the area within the past two days. There are other potential explanations for the DNA to find its way into new waters, including bird droppings, sewage discharges from humans who consumed the fish or bilge and ballast water picked up by a vessel in a contaminated area and discharged elsewhere.

But digestive tracts and sewage treatment plants are likely to destroy the DNA before it arrived in the canal, and while some of the positive results theoretically could be tied to boats discharging contaminated water, "no other explanation than the presence of multiple living (Asian) carps can plausibly explain the spatial and temporal pattern of positive results" that scientists have been finding in the canal system since last summer, environmental DNA expert David Lodge, a University of Notre Dame professor and former Rhodes Scholar, wrote in a Jan. 4 U.S. Supreme Court filing.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency dispatched an investigative crew to Lodge's lab at the University of Notre Dame late last year to scrutinize his operation.

While the technology is considered cutting edge and it has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, the federal team of experts dispatched to evaluate its accuracy concluded the tool is "sufficiently reliable and robust in reporting a pattern of detection that should be considered actionable in a management context."

In other words, if the DNA tests show the fish are there, you can reasonably classify - and treat - a body of water as if it harbors Asian carp.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/87629192.html