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??? Illinois dumps toxins in river to control invasive Asian Carp, then ooops.
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What's wrong with this picture and who are the bozos that approved this fish eugenics experiment?
The results...
They succeeded in killing Tens of thousands of fish.....And only ONE carp!
Then state...."that they would rather err on the side of caution" LOL!
If this is man steering nature for the better. God help us all!
[link to www.chicagobreakingnews.com]
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Dozens of boats combed the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal starting in the pre-dawn hours today, ultimately finding a lone Asian carp among tens of thousands of poisoned fish.
After officials launched what's believed to be the largest deliberate fish kill in state history Wednesday night, biologists sifted through the carnage at dump sites along the popular shipping canal near Romeoville. But by late this evening, they had identified just one 22-inch Asian carp, an invasive fish that officials say has the potential to devastate the region's commercial fishing industry if allowed to enter the Great Lakes.
Though some might question a three-day, $3 million fish kill if few Asian carp are found, biologists know the fewer carp discovered, the better the long-term health of the popular shipping canal.
"We can't say how many (Asian carp) there are out there. We're still in the beginning stages," said John Rogner assistant director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. "This is clearly a significant find in this operation that validates why it is so important for this work to be done," he said.
Clean-up operations ended at sundown this evening and will resume around 7 a.m. Friday.
Illinois has been locked in a 15-year battle to limit the spread of the voracious Asian carp, which can grow to up to 110 pounds and can eat several times their body weight a day. When researchers found the carp were pushing north up the shipping canal toward Lake Michigan, the Army Corps of Engineers erected two underwater electric barriers above Lockport Dam that effectively repel the carp when they come too close.
When the Army Corps made plans to shut down one of the electric barriers for maintenance this week, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources responded Wednesday night by dumping 2,200 gallons of the toxin rotenone into the canal. Rotenone is deadly for fish but not harmful to humans, animals or most other aquatic life.
Crews returned to the canal by 4 a.m. Thursday to begin collecting the scores of dead fish that began floating to the surface. They scooped them from the water with nets and piled them along the canal for inspection. The fish will eventually be deposited at an area landfill.
Success of the project won't be determined by how many Asian carp are found, but rather what biologists learn about them and by ensuring they don't go beyond the electric barriers while under repair, said Illinois DNR spokesman Chris McCloud.
"We couldn't take a chance that while the barrier is down, Asian carp are allowed to swim freely up the canal," McCloud said. "There's too much at stake to do nothing. We'd rather err on the side of caution."
An important question biologists will try to answer during the fish kill is how large a population of Asian carp exists around the electric barriers. Researchers have collected fish DNA indicating that the invasive carp are present in the canal and have advanced beyond the barriers, but there have been few actual sightings of the carp in that location.
McCloud said some of the data collected this week will help biologists figure out the reliability of those DNA samples.
The Asian carp found Thursday was discovered near Lockport Dam, nearly six miles from the barriers. Finding only one carp suggests the population in that part of the canal is smaller than feared, which is great news, officials said.
"The bottom line is we have to know what we're dealing with," McCloud said. "We have to know where they are and how many there are."
By Thursday evening, biologists had begun applying a detoxifying agent to the water to limit the spread of rotenone below the six-mile designated kill area.
The Coast Guard has closed that part of the canal to boat traffic until the project is done, which is expected to be late Saturday.
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