Senator Sounds The Alarm After Single Asian Carp Is Found Near Lake Michigan

[link to dailycaller.com]

Federal officials found a single Asian carp nine miles from Lake Michigan Thursday, and some politicians are concerned the fish will be a scourge to the local fisheries and ecosystem.

Democratic Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin called the discovery of the fish troubling, and called for action against the invasive fish species.

“I’ve been sounding the alarm on the threat Asian carp pose to our Great Lakes, our quality of life in Wisconsin and our freshwater economy,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Friday.

Baldwin and others are concerned that the Asian carp’s tremendous appetite — the fish can grow to 100 pounds and eat up to 20 percent of its body weight every day — could destroy the local species by depleting the plankton food supply.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which captured the live carp, has prepared a report known as the Brandon Study which contains a plan for preventing the fish’s incursion into the Great Lakes. The Army Corps delayed releasing the report after Illinois Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti opposed the measure.