Locals Want Great Lakes Cut Off

Asian carp, the aqua-locusts. At this point, no one has a clue how to stop these things. Meaning really stop ’em.

They’ve been charging up the Mississippi River, and the massive bureaucracy that is the Army Corps of Engineers is studying whether to close the Chicago Sanitary and Ship canal, which connects the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. But…the Corps study is expected to be completed in 2015.

Think the carp’ll find their way into the Great Lakes by then? Hmmm?

A recent editorial in the Muskegon Chronicle newspaper said this:

Waiting another four years for some sort of action is too long. Once Asian carp or another invasive species is established in the Great Lakes, it’s too late. The time to act is now — before this species moves into the Great Lakes.

We continue to believe closing the canal is the only way to protect the Great Lakes and its $11 billion recreational boating industry and $7 billion fishery.

Sounds like biz folks are worried. “They claim that closing the shipping locks would cost billions and devastate a regional economy that depends on cargo moving through Illinois.”

On the other other hand, almost 190 non-native species now live in the Great Lakes. Question is whether Asian carp or maybe something else will be the straw that kills the fisheries.

As I’ve said before here, it’s been proven time and again that once “biological pollution” (some critter) gets somewhere, you’re not getting rid of it. And as we recently posted about boat sterilization, most if not all of this biological contamination is inevitable.