Progress blocked to lessen dire threat of Asian carp

For more than a decade now, marine biologists and other aquatic experts have made the potential perils to Lake Erie of a supersized enemy fish painfully clear.

For more than a decade now as well, governmental response to the economic and environmental threat posed by the Asian carp has moved painfully slow.

And now, fresh news indicates the administration of President Donald J. Trump appears intent on continuing that slow and dangerous crawl.

The Trump administration this week ordered an indefinite hold on the release of a study and plan to stop Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes by strengthening a choke point in the Chicago waterway system. The study had been scheduled for public release Tuesday.

Administration officials gave no clear reason for the delay and gave no indication when the study may be disclosed for public review and concrete action. We urge its expeditious release, as time is wasting to minimize the damage of these demon fish.

The inexplicable delay has rightly rankled the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center. “After many years of review, and extensive input from diverse stakeholders, the study needs to see the light of day to help prevent the Asian carp from wreaking havoc on our environment and economy,” said Marc Smith, policy director for the center.

Smith is correct. These aquatic terrorists that eat like hogs, breed like bunnies and rip asunder any ecosystem in their path continue their inexorable march toward destruction.

WORST THREAT IN CENTURY

The Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative call the carp the greatest damaging invasive species that has entered the Great Lakes in the last 100 years.

And just five weeks ago, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission reported that invasive grass carp – one of several Asian carp species – have penetrated Lakes Erie, Michigan and Ontario. It concluded, however, that time remains to prevent their destruction from getting out of hand.

Clearly, however, time is growing short to protect the Great Lakes and their many assets. The lakes provide nearly 35 million people with drinking water and support tourism and fishing industries that generate an estimated $7 billion in economic activity each year.

The study was expected to recommend specific measures to prevent Asian carp from traveling beyond a Chicago-area lock and dam that are seen as a major “choke point” in the fight against the carp’s infiltration of the Great Lakes. Sadly, parochial interests in the Windy City have succeeded for years now in blocking real action. It appears as if those narrow interests again may have won the day.

They cannot be permitted, however, to win the battle. U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, and Mike Kelly of Butler, R-3rd, recognize as much and have signed on to to a letter of protest to President Trump. In part, it reads, “There is a consensus that the threat is real, and unfortunately, efforts to solve the problem are now mired in bureaucratic inaction. Further delay only increases the likelihood that this threat becomes a full-scale irreversible inundation of this highly destructive invasive species.”

The Trump administration should listen to the congressmen’s plea, release the study and get down to work to blunt the threat.