From the beginning it was known that low voltage would not stop Asian carp under 6 inches from crossing the electric barriers in the Chicago waterway. In the original tests it was also noted that both sliver and bighead carp could cross the barrier when frightened.
But not to worry, as luck would have it, the closest small Asian carp are 116 miles away from the barrier. Whew! Dodged a bullet there.
I see a lot of fancy titles, millions of dollars in studies with more to come. It’s only government money and we’ve got lots of that. What I don’t see is any impact on Asian carp numbers. Despite commercial fishing, the carp are still doubling. And we have created a group that now will fight to keep them; some commercial guys are making big money off of Asian carp, a very dangerous thing. The best thing to do is not let the carp get big enough, or in numbers high enough to have any value.
What can we do? All the experts say lack of predators allows invasive species to take over, so we add predators. All baby fish have predators, that’s how nature works, how it balances the system.
We now have 185 invasive species in the Great Lakes that continue to increase in numbers, and we have native predators for them, but the predators lack enough numbers to control the invasives. This can be changed real easily, however any increase in native fish populations would threaten the alewives, so helping native fish is not allowed.
Oh, they can do studies, that doesn’t threaten the alewives. There are hundreds of studies (already paid for by the way) even Michigan Department of Natural Resources studies that tell us what we need to do, many examples. But the best plan the MDNR has is to increase the alewives, an invasive species.
It seems the only science based or real fish biology is being applied to the alewives, and native fish are thrown under the bus! I don’t care if the MDNR calls the alewives, prey or naturalized, or blue-tailed monkeys for that matter. Alewives are an invasive species, they will always be an invasive species, they will continue to eat zooplankton and native larval fish no matter what you call them.
Regardless of how many titles or Ph.D.s these people have, increasing an invasive species is not helping fight invasive species. The law says we have to protect our natural resources, not the fish from out of town!
We have native predators for Asian carp and other invasive species, use them or lose them.
Tom Matych
Twin Lake
0 comments:
Post a Comment