WHEN WILL THE NEXT KILLER QUAKE strike California? How soon will Iran get the Bomb? No one has a clue. But state and federal officials will try to answer a catastrophic question nearer to home Tuesday by probing the Illinois River for four days to see how close the dreaded Asian carp is to Lake Michigan.
The voracious fish, which eats 40 percent of its body weight a day and threatens to wreck the Great Lakes fishing industry by crowding out other species, escaped from Southern fish farms in the 1970s and has since scarfed its way up the Mississippi and Illinois waterways. In 2002, one was found near Romeoville, 50 miles from the lake and only 21 miles from an electrified barrier put down to repel the invaders by the Army Corps of Engineers. “We’ll have 14 crews from 11 agencies seeking the leading edge of the carp,” says Pam Thiel of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. She calls the whole carp story “bizarre,” not least the fact that the fish is in the minnow family and could be unwittingly conveyed to the lake by fishermen who collect their own bait. “When the carp are small,” says Thiel, “they resemble minnows. But their eyes are low on their head and it looks like their head’s on upside down. If you see something like that in your bait bucket, don’t use it.”
A new barrier-electrodes on steel beams along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal’s floor-is set to take over for the demonstration model in place since 2002. But the corps thinks two barriers are needed and wants to keep the demo running as a backup until a second barrier 1,000 feet downriver can be built next year. But budget woes due, in part, to the recent round of tax cuts have made it unlikely that Congress will allot new money for either project. “Funding is touchy right now,” says Chuck Shea, the corp’s project manager.
Enjoy those tax cuts, America.
