Nearly 50 fishery biologists and other employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and nine other federal, state and local agencies will monitor the waterway from the western suburbs of Chicago to the La Salle-Peru area from June 10-13 during the "Goby Roundup/Carp Corral" annual surveillance project. Their goal is to determine the relative abundance and upstream distribution of bighead and silver carp and the downstream leading edge of round goby.
The Illinois Waterway System in the Chicago area comprises several interconnecting, manmade channels and natural rivers that provide a direct link for non-native species to travel in both directions between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basins. The exchange of invasive species invasive species
An invasive species is any plant or animal that has spread or been introduced into a new area where they are, or could, cause harm to the environment, economy, or human, animal, or plant health. Their unwelcome presence can destroy ecosystems and cost millions of dollars.
Learn more about invasive species between these two enormous drainage basins, which encompass portions of 30 states and two Canadian providences, poses a serious and relentless threat to the economy and ecology of the Midwest and the nation.
Non-native or invasive species such as round goby and zebra mussels arrived in the Great Lakes in the ballast water of large transoceanic vessels from the Black and Caspian Seas. These invaders have spread to all of the Great Lakes, including Lake Michigan, and entered the Mississippi drainage through the Illinois Waterway corridor.
Round gobies have been moving inland from Lake Michigan toward the Mississippi River for a decade. The most downstream collection of round goby to date is in the Joliet area, about 50 miles inland from Calumet Harbor on Lake Michigan, and one sixth of the way down the length of the Illinois Waterway toward the Mississippi River.
The exotic round goby is a bottom-feeding species known for its aggressive feeding and defensive behavior and prolific reproductive rate--traits that make them a threat to native fish and a nuisance to anglers.
Bighead and silver carp are native to large rivers in Asia and are traveling in the opposite direction from gobies swimming toward Lake Michigan. Asian carp were brought to Arkansas by private fish farmers in the early 1970s, and first appeared in public waterways in the early 1980s. The most upstream collection of bighead carp to date is about 10 miles south of Joliet, or about 50 miles from Lake Michigan. Bighead and silver carp are plankton feeders so they eat microscopic plant and animals--and can reach weights of over 80 pounds.
"These species have become extremely abundant in stretches of the upper Mississippi River and the lower Illinois rivers," said Pam Thiel, project leader for the Services LaCrosse, Wisc., Fishery Resource Office and coordinator of the project. "In addition to upsetting the natural balance of the ecosystem, they can cause problems for boaters and other recreational users because they can actually leap high out of the water and hit you in your moving boat."
Biologists are concerned about the impending movement of bighead and silver carp into Lake Michigan because if they become established, they could impact the food web by competing directly with the prey base for salmon and trout, as well as yellow perch. In addition to environmental havoc, Asian carp could affect the $4.5 billion commercial sport and fishing industries of the Great Lakes.
To prevent and slow the spread of non-native aquatic species throughout the Mississippi and Great Lakes basins, the Nonindigenous Species Act of 1996 authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study and determine the feasibility of an aquatic nuisance species barrier as a demonstration project. An experimental, full-water column electrical barrier designed to repel fish was constructed near Romeoville in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and became operational in April 2002.
The current electrical barrier has an expected life of only about three years. Therefore, a second electrical barrier located downstream from the first is slated for completion in the fall of 2004.
"With bighead carp just about 20 miles downstream from the electrical barrier and the invasive European ruffe approximately 300 miles from the connection, a more permanent, long-term solution is needed," Thiel said.
The aquatic invasive species problem has garnered the attention of biologists and politicians alike. At the behest of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, the Chicago Department of Environment and the Fish and Wildlife Service, nearly 70 top scientists, engineers and invasive-species experts from around the globe gathered in Chicago in May to generate ideas for halting the exchange of invasive species between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River drainage basins.
As a result of an Aquatic Invasive Species Summit, plans are underway to conduct feasibility studies, build partnerships and pursue financial, political, and technical support to address the management of invasive species and their movement between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin.
The Services partners in the Goby Roundup/Carp Corral are the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, University of Illinois, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, Environmental Protection Agency, Cook County Forest Preserve, U.S. Army, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Field Museum, and the U.S. Geological Surveys Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses nearly 540 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 70 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
