A giant, super competitive fish, also known as the Asian Giant Carp, has invaded the Mississippi River. This fish can grow up to four feet long and weigh as much as 100 pounds. It consumes half its weight in plankton everyday and environmentalists fear that it will starve off other native, but fragile fish ecosystems in the Great Lakes. Originally an imported farmed fish, it wound up in the Mississippi after floods took them away from their farms. However, due to an electrical barrier that has a primary purpose of keeping invasive species out of the Great Lakes, this invasive fish has not yet entered the Great Lakes. While this electrical barrier is closed off for maintenance, Illinois officials have been pouring poison into the river to prevent the carp from entering the Great Lakes while the barrier is off. Environmentalists have vouched for permanently separating the Mississippi and the Great Lakes in order to prevent what the article mentioned as a "ecological disaster". However, permanently separating the Mississippi and the Great Lakes would disrupt the movement of millions of tons of products that use the waterways to transport.
To me, this seems to be a clash between environmentalists and industrialists. While the fish and other invasive species do pose a menacing threat, a physical barrier between Mississippi and the Great Lakes would cause the price of many products to go up. This is because the products on the ships would have to be transported by car or truck across Illinois instead of by sea. However, I think that the environmentalists are right. Constructing a physical barrier is a very good preventive method, and I think that if the Asian Carp were to be introduced into the Great Lakes, it would destroy the fishing economy there... unless Asian Carp is extremely popular all of the sudden.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
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Although keeping the Asian Giant Carp out of the Great Lakes is definitely an environmental problem, I do not think that we should sacrifice our shipping industry by separating the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River.
I know that due to floods, the release of the Asian Giant Carp into the river was not on purpose, however, I feel we should not pour poison into the river. This can further damage any native specie in the area and cause erosion which can later affect our agriculture. By pouring poison into the river, it is doing more harm than good. Although extreme environmentalists are trying to protect native species in the Great Lakes, they should not sacrifice those in the river connecting the two bodies of water.
Because the electrical barrier would need frequent maintenance's, I feel that they should build a dam. This situation could help generate hydro power for neighboring cities AND separate the Asian Giant Carp from entering the Great Lakes.
I don't know if this plan would actually work because of all the construction that would have to take place, but it is just a suggestion.
-Brian Kawamoto
I thought this was really interesting so I decided to google "Asian Giant Carp," the second article that came up was from NPR and its title was "Asian Carp: Can't Beat Them? Eat Them." In the article it talks about a growing market for the Asian giant carp,
"Plant owner Mike Schafer has spent the last seven years developing a market for Asian carp. He says his company sells more than 2 million pounds each year — mostly in Asian-American communities in California, New York and Chicago."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5542199
So, a possible solution could be to catch the fish, sell it, and eat it.
"So, a possible solution could be to catch the fish, sell it, and eat it."
This is a possibility, but there is no way that the Asian Giant Carp will completely disappear due to this. Even getting the population down to a level that keeps native species from being devastated will take a while, and by that time, the populations of the native species will be devastated.
A similar instance happened in Africa, which may be used to predict the outcome of the strategy of simply fishing the Asian Giant Carp.
The Nile Perch was introduced to Lake Victoria some time around the 1950's in Africa, and it devastated the native species, driving many of the native cichlids to extinction in their local habitat, and if they were not driven to extinction, they were made endangered or critically endangered. Pretty recently (I forget when exactly) it was reported that the Nile Perch population was decreasing as a result of a large increase in commercial fishing for the Nile Perch in the region, and the native cichlids are making a comeback.
The Nile Perch population did lower to a level in which the native species could start repopulating, but it took over 50 years to do so, and by that time, many species of cichlids were made locally extinct, if not completely extinct.
Although your idea is a good one Dana, and should be integrated into the overall strategy to help control the carp, we can not rely on only overfishing it.
-Yuzo Yanagitsuru
"Because the electrical barrier would need frequent maintenance, I feel that they should build a dam."
Although I agree that this option has its benefits, it would also devastate the current lucrative shipping industry in the Great Lakes region. Finding alternative ways to move ships would cost excessive amounts of money and might still enable the Asian Giant Carp to enter the lakes.
At the moment, I think that the most ideal solution would be to continue using the electric barrier. This fence allows smaller native fish to move around while effectively (if turned on to full power) preventing the movement of the carp. From everything that I've read, poisoning the river while the gates are being repaired does not seem to have any lasting impact on the overall ecosystem, although I may be misinformed.
Keeping the asian carp out of the lakes would also preserve the sport and commercial fishing industries, which are valued at $7 billion. It would also keep the lakes safe for pleasure boaters and fishers; I read here that when excited, the Asian Carp will jump up to 6 feet out of the water, potentially landing on and crushing small boats.
I'm not sure if building a dam would be the best solution because they too require a lot of maintenance. And dams alter the natural ecosystem: water builds up behind it that isn't there and creates a new ecosystem while water downstream dwindles in supply, killing species as well as ruining deltas.
But I REALLLLLLY don't think they should be pouring poison into the water. They are hurting the Asian Carp, yes, but they are hurting other animals too. You cannot hurt only one species with such an extreme method, other animals are inevitably going to be affected. Unfortunately, there is no feasible way to get rid of invasive species because there are qualities about them that make them able to be invasive. They often reproduce rapidly and are able to thrive in pretty much any location. They also happen to be bullies that eat all the food of the native species and take up their space :/
I think we should fish them and send them back wherever they came from and make sure they never return(also not feasible, but not much is when dealing with invasive species)
"But I REALLLLLLY don't think they should be pouring poison into the water."
Britney, I don't like pouring poison into the water either, but the poison they are probably using is rotenone, which is a popular "fish killer" that has been used to try to eliminate aquatic invasive species. Rotenone has the short term effect of killing all fish that come in contact with a large enough concentration of the substance, but it is not known to have any lasting effects on the ecosystem it is used on. While it will probably not do much to control the Asian Carp population (because its in a river, and the water flows), and it will kill many other fish in the region, using the toxin gets the most results out of any other strategy.
Here's an instance where rotenone was a huge success. This won't apply as much to the current situation because this instance was in a pond, not a river. I'm just going to keep it short. The Northern Snakehead is an invasive species that was found in a pond in Maryland, people freaked out. They poured rotenone in the pond, and all the snakeheads died. This was in a pond though, keep that in mind.
"think we should fish them and send them back wherever they came from and make sure they never return"
About the fishing. A cool thing about rotenone is that it is lethal to the fish, but to humans who consume the fish that have died due to rotenone, it is harmless. So we could possibly fish and pour rotenone in the lakes at the same time.
A comment about sending them back wherever they came from.
The Northern Snakehead that I mentioned above was banned from the United States after the freakout in Maryland because they found out that the Snakehead was not only in Maryland, but the Great Lakes and California among other places. Like the Asian Giant Carp, it was a popular Asian (I think it was Vietnamese) cuisine. There was a little uproar about snakeheads no longer being sold at cuisines as well as no longer at fish stores (as they were a popular ornamental fish), but the uproar was not great enough to really have any significant changes made.
Asian Giant Carp are very similar to the Northern Snakehead in that aspect, except they are not popularly kept as ornamental fish. However, I do not know how popular Asian Giant Carp is compared to the Snakehead, but based off of the common name "carp," I would think that the carp is rather popular and many people will get upset about the banning of Asian Giant Carp in the United States.
Well I can't really think of any good strategy for getting rid of the Asian Giant Carp from the Great Lakes, but I just wanted to point out that the poison being poured into the river (probably rotenone) is not as bad an idea as most people would think it to be, fishing will probably not do much, but its better than not fishing, and that banning Asian Giant Carp may be a possibility in controlling further invasion by the Asian Giant Carp depending on how popular of a fish it is.
-Yuzo Yanagitsuru
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/12/02/Toxins-used-to-halt-Asian-carp-advance/UPI-85741259799161/
Here's an article that confirms my guess that the toxin they are using is rotenone.
I see your point about taking a broad approach to end the threat of the asian carp. However, I still have concern for the native species because their survival is already being threatened by the asian carp, and adding poison would hurt them as well. By the time most of the asian carp are killed, would all the native species have a sustainable population? These things are hard to tell because you can't really measure WHICH fish get poisoned, only that fish will be poisoned.
Dealing with invasive species just seems like a difficult thing to do
Okay, I still believe in supporting the economy and one way to do so is by building a dam. Some pros of it are that it can produce large amounts of hydro power to generate energy for neighboring cities, provide water for agriculture, STOP the Asian Giant Carp from enter the Great Lakes in large quantities, etc. And yes, I do know the cons. It will dramatically affect local species habitats, cut off the shipping industries, etc.
Lauren previously proposed that we should not build a dam, but rather continue the shipping industry. However, what she didn't know is that "According to the study for WWF, last year 84pc of the world's marine regions had reported findings of invasive species, with shipping a major reason for their spread."
Britney previously said "I think we should fish them and send them back wherever they came from and make sure they never return(also not feasible, but not much is when dealing with invasive species)." I agree, this idea is not feasible. You cannot simply catch Asian Giant Carps and simply move them back to wherever they came from and make sure they won't return.
Although building a dam may not be the most ideal solution for the surrounding areas, I still feel that it holds a lot of benefits in preventing the Asian Giant Carps from entering the Great Lakes. If the main goal is preventing the carps, then I feel building a dam would be good, otherwise I don't think it is.
-Brian Kawamoto
"By the time most of the asian carp are killed, would all the native species have a sustainable population?"
Well, like you said, its difficult to tell the extent to which the native species will be harmed by rotenone being dumped into the river. However, it is difficult to tell to what extent commercial fishing will affect the native species as well. I am going to assume commercial fishing will utilize large trawl nets to catch the carp. Trawling is not selective and catches any fish that gets surrounded by the net. Although people can try to just pick out all the native species from the invasive species and throw them back into the river, this process is very labor intensive and not many, if not most of the fish that get caught in the trawl will survive. Also, the trawl will not get as many carp out of the river as dumping toxins would. Attemping to overfish the carp just seems like a less forceful way to get rid of the carp than poisoning the river to me, and to get rid of the carp, I believe, needs a very forceful approach because carp are one of the most dangerous invasive species to an ecosystem due to their voracious appetite for plants, the support base for all other species.
And Brian,
"According to the study for WWF, last year 84pc of the world's marine regions had reported findings of invasive species, with shipping a major reason for their spread."
I wanted to point out that the carp did not come from shipping, but rather, they came from the flooding of local areas where they were growing carp for food.
"If the main goal is preventing the carps, then I feel building a dam would be good, otherwise I don't think it is."
I'm going to have to agree with Lauren about the electric fences. I think building a dam will take too long and will cost too much. I'm not sure about how long building a dam would take, but I am sure it would take several years, which by that time, I would suppose a significant number of carp would have already leaked into the lakes by then. Also, although the main goal may be to prevent the carps, there are other very important goals that we must consider. We do not want only to prevent and get rid of invasive species, we want to promote the comeback of the native species as well. There are many native species to the Great Lakes that are migratory like sturgeon and salmon (the salmon being extirpated from the region) that will be adversely affected by the dam. I have full confidence that one day we will be able to start recovering the population of the native species, including those that have been extirpated from the region, and if we are to do this, the dam will only provide another obstacle for that goal.
-Yuzo Yanagitsuru
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