Search finds no additional Asian carp in Chicago waterway

Associated Press

TRAVERSE CITY, MICH.

A two-week search turned up no additional Asian carp in a Chicago waterway where one of the invasive fish recently was found beyond an electric barrier network designed to prevent them from reaching the Great Lakes, officials said Monday.

Teams were deployed after a commercial fisherman’s capture June 22 of a silver carp, one of the species native to Asia that have infested the Illinois River and advanced on Lake Michigan. The 28-inch, 8-pound fish was only the second live Asian carp ever caught past the barriers, giving fresh ammunition to critics who question the effectiveness of the government’s strategy for protecting the lakes.

Scientists are examining the fish carcass to determine where it came from, said Kevin Irons, aquatic nuisance species program manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. But he and other officials said they were convinced its discovery just 9 miles from Lake Michigan did not mean large numbers of Asian carp had breached the defenses.

Numerous carp varieties were imported from Asia in the 1960s to cleanse algae from Deep South sewage treatment facilities and catfish farms. They escaped and spread up the Mississippi River and its tributaries.