Stop Asian Carp From Invading The Great Lakes

Groups, petitioners, demand action to block invasive predator from nation's largest supply of fresh surface water.

OCT. 13, 2011

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Clean Wisconsin – Freshwater Future -- Midwest Environmental Advocates – Milwaukee Riverkeeper -- River Alliance of Wisconsin – Sierra Club – Wisconsin Environment – Wisconsin Great Lakes Coalition -- Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters – Wisconsin Wildlife Federation)

    Citizens and conservationists call on Congress to force separation of Mississippi River, Great Lakes basins
   
    Thousands of people across the Great Lakes region want the federal government to immediately begin working toward separating the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins, according to conservation leaders who gathered Thursday in downtown Milwaukee.

    Several conservation groups held a press conference at Pere Marquette Park to call on Congress to direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to immediately work toward separating the basins. The groups then walked several blocks to U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl’s office, where they delivered more than 2,800 signed postcards from Great Lakes residents demanding a new approach to keeping Asian carp in the Mississippi River system from invading the Great Lakes.

    “People around the Great Lakes have been sending the same message to their members of Congress that we delivered to Senator Kohl today: We want a permanent solution to stop the Asian carp,” said Cheryl Mendoza, associate director of Freshwater Future. “The Great Lakes are too important to wait years for studies when we could be taking actions toward a permanent solution now. We need our members of Congress to help make that happen.”

    Freshwater Future developed the post cards that were delivered to Sen. Kohl as a way to give Great Lakes residents a way to speak out on the Asian carp issue.

    The Army Corps is currently studying how to keep Asian carp in the Mississippi River system from reaching the Great Lakes, but that study won’t be complete until mid-2015 at the earliest. An electric fence the Army Corps operates in the Chicago Waterway System doesn’t repel all sizes of fish, meaning the lakes remain vulnerable to an Asian carp invasion.

    Experts have said that disconnecting the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins is the only sure way to keep Asian carp from conquering the lakes.

    “Live Asian Carp have been caught in the Wisconsin River 60 miles upstream of the Mississippi, and as far as 50 miles up the St. Croix, a National Wild and Scenic River,” notes Lori Grant of the River Alliance of Wisconsin.  “Our left flank has already been penetrated; these destructive fish can not be allowed to breach and wreak havoc on the Great Lakes too.”

    Asian carp were imported to Arkansas fish farms in the 1960s. The fish later escaped into the Mississippi River and headed North; they are now on the verge of invading Lake Michigan via the Chicago Waterway System.

    Built in the late 1800s to solve Chicago’s sewage crisis, the Chicago Waterway System is a series of canals that created an artificial link between Lake Michigan the Mississippi River basin. Those canals have become a conduit through which Asian carp, zebra mussels and other invasive species can move between Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.

“Milwaukee’s rivers have enjoyed a tremendous renaissance over the last several decades and are now a source of community pride. Opportunities for fishing and recreation have improved greatly, as well as those for economic development. Now we are faced with new threats as invasive species that could wipe out our restored fisheries head our way. We must do everything in our power to prevent the Asian Carp from destroying all the wonderful improvements people have worked so hard for,” stated Karen Schapiro, Milwaukee Riverkeeper Executive Director.

    Congress in 2007 directed the Corps to find ways to keep Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes. Four years later, the Corps is still studying the problem without any plan for eliminating the threat.

    The Corps’ own studies have found that electric barriers in the Chicago Waterway System won’t keep Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan.

    Four preeminent Great Lakes scientists recently concluded that the only sure way to stop the movement of Asian carp and at least 40 other species between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes systems is to physically separate the two basins.

    Studies have shown that separating the basins is technologically feasible and that such action would benefit the Great Lakes and Mississippi River ecosystems and the massive economies they support.

    “We know what the problem is. The consequences of not doing everything we can to stop the Asian carp could be catastrophic and forever change our Great Lakes,” stated George Meyer, Executive Director for Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. “Our Great Lakes way of life is at risk.  Now is the time to act toward a permanent solution.”


(Clean Wisconsin – Freshwater Future -- Midwest Environmental Advocates – Milwaukee Riverkeeper -- River Alliance of Wisconsin – Sierra Club – Wisconsin Environment – Wisconsin Great Lakes Coalition -- Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters – Wisconsin Wildlife Federation)

    Contacts:

    Karen Schapiro, Milwaukee Riverkeeper: (414) 507-7049
    George Meyer, Wisconsin Wildlife Federation: (608) 516-5545
    Lori Grant, River Alliance of Wisconsin: (608) 257-2424 ext. 111
    Cheryl Mendoza, Freshwater Future: (231)571-5001