The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking some innovative, and perhaps unusual, steps to keep Asian carp (the silver and bighead carp in particular) from infesting the Great Lakes. In the next several years several layers of protection will be used to thwart the arrival of the carp by way of the Chicago-area rivers
During the 20th century, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, became a hub of human activity and commerce. Toxic chemicals, discarded animal hides, meatpacking offal and other waste were dumped into the connected Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers with abandon, not to mention municipal sewage. Now a coalition of government entities and advocates is launching an ambitious project to
Decades ago several bird species in the Great Lakes—including the iconic bald eagle—faced an uncertain future because toxic chemicals were threatening their populations. While several bans and policies have offered some protection, the same chemicals threatening these birds 60 years ago continue to accumulate in their bodies—and new chemical threats are adding to their toxic
The Great Lakes are worth an estimated $13 billion annually, said Jill Thatcher, communications coordinator for the Invasvie Species Centre in a release. “Asian carp have the potential to devastate the Great Lakes ecologically and economically if they were to establish. They grow very large very quickly with huge appetites to match and would easily
In a research pond in La Crosse, Wisconsin, scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and U.S. Geological Survey are testing the effectiveness of a new strategy to ward off an Asian carp invasion that’s threatening the health of the Great Lakes, including Lake Michigan. The study called for placing a carbon dioxide infusion
Asian carp were imported from China to the U.S. in the 1970s to remove algae from catfish farms and wastewater treatment ponds. Somehow they escaped and migrated north through the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. The species spawn in rivers and feed on phytoplankton, disrupting the food chain for younger fish. The voracious eaters can weigh