Word: carping
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...since jaws has a piscine predator caused such a commotion. Asian carp--which grow up to four feet long, feast ravenously on other species' food and have a nasty habit of leaping from the water to wallop unsuspecting fishermen--are threatening to take a bite out of the Great Lakes' $7 billion fishing industry. To reassure jittery local governments, the White House held an Asian-carp summit Feb. 8 and pledged $78.5 million to help keep the fish--brought to the U.S. in the '70s to rid catfish farms of algae...
...certain that Asian carp have made it into the Great Lakes. The Mississippi River system and the Great Lakes are connected only through the man-made Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which leads from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. (It's not uncommon for invasions to occur when humans connect ecosystems that have naturally been kept separate.) The Army Corps of Engineers put an electric barrier in the canal to prevent the carp from infiltrating Lake Michigan, but it may not have been enough - although no live fish have been found yet, last month a team of scientists discovered...
Scientists don't know how large the Asian carp population would need to get before it becomes self-sustaining and morphs from nuisance into true threat. And some doubt the fish will ever make it into the lakes, given their need to spawn in long, fast-flowing rivers like the Illinois. "It might be 20 to 25 years before they really establish themselves," says Duane Chapman, a research fish biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "We don't know for sure that we'll have any problems to speak...
Maybe, but that's not how the governors of Michigan and Wisconsin are treating the problem. They want the locks of the Chicago canal to be shut down immediately, to prevent the carp from ever gaining a finhold in the Great Lakes. But Illinois lawmakers argue that closing the canal would disrupt hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of shipping. A coalition of six Great Lakes states and the Canadian province of Ontario even sought an injunction last month from the Supreme Court to force an immediate shutdown of the canal; the court declined to issue the ruling but will...
...White House has taken action as well. On Monday, federal officials announced $78.5 million in funding to prevent the spread of Asian carp; plans include building new barriers between the Chicago canal and the Des Plaines River. (The carp may be able to bypass the existing electric barrier in the canal when water levels are high and the two waterways mix.) "We see the threat and potential impact of the Asian carp establishing themselves in the Great Lakes," says Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. "We believe we have the chance to work together...