CHICAGO — Environmentalists raised an alarm Thursday about Asian carp found spawning in the Wabash River in northern Indiana and the possibility that flooding could push them into other waterways that lead to the Great Lakes. But Indiana wildlife officials said they’re way ahead of the voracious fish. Asian carp were found spawning in May near Lafayette, Ind., 100 miles...
CHICAGO — Environmentalists raised an alarm Thursday about Asian carp found spawning in the Wabash River in northern Indiana and the possibility that flooding could push them into other waterways that lead to the Great Lakes. But Indiana wildlife officials said they’re way ahead of the voracious fish.
Asian carp were found spawning in May near Lafayette, Ind., 100 miles downstream from a 91-foot-high dam that has so far kept them far from the headwaters of the Wabash, said Phil Bloom, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. “We have no evidence that Asian carp have been able to penetrate that barrier” which is near Huntington in northwestern Indiana, Bloom said.
Even so, the Indiana DNR is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey to determine how much flooding it would take for the fish to escape from the Wabash into waters that connect with Lake Erie.
Biologists fear the giant carp — which can grow to 4 feet and 100 pounds — could destroy the Great Lakes’ $7 billion-a-year fishery by starving out native species. And several lawmakers have introduced legislation to study a plan to permanently separate waterways linking the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.
Last week, officials said a live carp was caught six miles from Lake Michigan. Commercial fishermen landed the 3-foot-long, 20-pound bighead carp in Lake Calumet on Chicago’s South Side, about six miles from Lake Michigan.
Joel Brammeier, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, said the discovery of spawning Asian carp in the Wabash underscores the need for better leadership and coordination to keep the invasive fish out of the Great Lakes. “The news that Asian carp in the Wabash River in Indiana are mere miles away from the Great Lakes Basin is yet another alarm calling us to address this clear threat,” U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said in a statement.
Asian carp have been present in the Wabash River for close to 15 years, Bloom said. They were first found in Indiana in 1996 in a DNR-managed fish and wildlife area called Hovey Lake Fish and Wildlife Area, Bloom said. In 1999, Asian carp were found further up the Wabash. And just within the last year or so, they were found in other Wabash River locations, though not in great concentrations. The farthest upstream on the Wabash they’ve been is beneath the Roush Lake dam near Huntington.
For decades, bighead and silver carp have been migrating up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers toward the Great Lakes. Two electric barriers, which emit pulses to scare the carp away or give a jolt if they proceed, have been a last line of defense. “We have no evidence that they have migrated or moved into the areas people are saying,” Bloom said. “We’re certainly looking at it. We don’t like Asian carp and we don’t want them in the Great Lakes any more than anybody else.”