Last year I asked an aquaculture instructor at cal poly what we could do to stop the asian carp from reaching the great lakes.
I'm paraphrasing, but his response was... "Nothing, we are screwed. It is just a matter of time as long as the waterway is intact"
Apparently it is virtually impossible (Based on pretty much every attempt we have made on other species in smaller bodies of water) to remove fish once they are transplanted and have acclimated...
All we can really do is sit back and see what happens to the fishery. Not exactly an ideal situation.
My point exactly. To fill in the canal or at least permanently close it off was an option but was dismissed by the powers to be, and they stood around arguing with their fingers up their bottoms anyway. The Corps of Engineers even shut down the electric weir a few times! And something not very well known, there was a push to divert funding from the weir to DHS, but it was shot down. (Yes I have that from a very reliable source in my DNR.)
The canal is man made for heavens sake! It's not like it's a natural waterway. It was originally built to flush raw sewage into Lake Michigan. It's possible the economic loss that may have been lost by closing the canal and sending shipping entirely on land (filling it in) may be a pittance compared to the economic loss of all the Great Lakes states, if the carp gets established. That's the part that doesn't make sense to me.
