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$3M Ill. Fish Kill Yields 1 Carp

Scientists pleased with effort to combat invasive species

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 4, 2009 2:00 PM CST
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(Newser) – The 3-day, $3 million attempt to purge a canal leading to Lake Michigan of invasive Asian carp has so far yielded just a single dead specimen. Biologists are still sifting through the tens of thousands of other fish poisoned in the purge, the largest deliberate fish kill in Illinois history. They say they’ll be happy even if they don’t find many more of the invasive fish, taking it as a good sign the area’s clean.

“We can’t say how many there are out there,” says one state official. “We’re still in the beginning stages.” Officials poured 2,200 gallons of rotenone, a chemical deadly to fish but harmless to humans, into the canal because they feared the Asian carp, which can grow to 110 pounds and eat several times its body weight in a day, would ruin regional fishing if the species infiltrated the Great Lakes.

A crew member pulls a fish from the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.
A crew member pulls a fish from the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.   (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
River traffic passes through a section of water containing an electric fish barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.
River traffic passes through a section of water containing an electric fish barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.   (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
Employees of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources take part in a electronic fish salvage operation of game fish in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009 in Romeoville, Ill.
Employees of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources take part in a electronic fish salvage operation of game fish in the Chicago Sanitary and...   (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
A fish bobs on the waters surface in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.
A fish bobs on the waters surface in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.   (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 28 comments
whatup
Dec 6, 2009 3:42 AM CST
NO WAY i totally disagree Count. his hyper vigilant partisanship is exactly what cracks my shit up. he would not be funny at all if he turned it off. keep up the good work DLY lol
USAHomeofthebrave
Dec 5, 2009 12:54 PM CST
No that's the lying, deceiving scumbag piece of sub-human garbage keith olbermann.
So_Cal_Larry
Dec 5, 2009 9:28 AM CST
These invasive species are very serious problems, indeed. This carp eats 40% of its body weight each day. It's a voracious eater that decimates other fish species almost to extinction in a given body of water. This fish must be kept out of Lake Michigan at whatever cost, including closing the canal entirely.
Green • US

 
conservation • Chicago • fish • Lake Michigan • Illinois • invasive species • commercial fishing • Asian carp • Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal • rotenone

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