The New York Times reports that Michigan has sued Illinois in an effort to close the Great Lake waterways leading to Lake Michigan, and the case has now made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The reason: Asian carp, the “voracious, non-native species” that consume 40 times their body weight a day and eat the food of other native fish. The Guardian (UK) says Asian carp now make up to 95 percent of the biomass in areas of the Illinois River. According to The New York Times, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Ohio now all support Michigan’s efforts to close waterways to Asian carp.
Asian carp have been moving up the Mississippi River for years, but have just recently threatened the Great Lakes region: “For years, leaders in the region worried about Asian bighead and silver carp — large, imported fish that can take over an ecosystem by consuming the food supply of other fish and that were known to be making their way north up the Mississippi River. But the efforts took on a new urgency in November, when the authorities reported finding genetic evidence of the carp within about six miles of Lake Michigan, in the Chicago-area waterway system that links the Mississippi to the Great Lakes.”
In addition to the damage to local native fish stocks, the non-native fish threaten to create a wider rift in the “carefully-constructed” Great Lakes compact, which prevents water from being diverted from the Great Lakes unless all eight neighboring states and Canadian provinces are in agreement about water use. There are concerns the recent Supreme Court case could reopen a 1920’s agreement on water use.
The City of Chicago is concerned about the carp making it to neighboring lakes, but is more worried about the economic impact of waterway closures. Suzanne Malec-McKenna, Comissioner of Chicago’s Department of Environment said to The New York Times: “While we recognize that Asian carp pose a significant threat to the Great Lakes, shutting down the waterway system in Northeastern Illinois before fully understanding the impact it would have on the movement of people, goods and storm water is a shortsighted answer to a complex problem.”
The Great Lakes provide 20 percent of the world’s freshwater, and are a crucial freshwater ecosystem.
The Guardian (UK) adds that Asian carp aren’t the only invasive animal or plant species the U.S. is concerned about. The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently stated that 38 percent of the 44,838 species catalogued on its “Red List” are faced with extinction. ”At least 40 percent of all animal extinctions for which the cause is known are the result of invasive species.” Invasive species not only negatively impact existing ecologies, but also wreck economic havoc: “The UN Convention on Biological Diversity says the spread of invasives costs 1.4 trillion dollars a year globally in damages and control measures. The U.S. alone loses 138 billion dollars a year in the fight.”
In another example, to protect native plant species in the midwest, The New York Times writes that the Chicago Botanic Garden and Morton Arboretum have been collecting prarie plant seeds, and creating plans for the assisted migration of some plant species in the event that climate change or invasive species destroy native ecosystems. “Scientists from the botanic garden are sending teams out across the Midwest and West to the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin to collect seeds from different populations of 1,500 prairie species by 2010, and from 3,000 species by 2020. The goal is to preserve the species and, depending on changes in climate, perhaps even help species that generally grow near one another to migrate to a new range.”
Kayri Havens, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s director of plant science and conservation said: “We recognize that climate change is likely to be very rapid and that seeds only disperse a few hundred yards, half a mile at most, naturally. They’ll need our help if we want to keep those species alive.”
The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management and its Seeds of Success program, the National Science Foundation, and Cedar Tree Foundation are funding efforts to catalogue, store, and preserve native plant species in the midwest.
Image credit: The New York Times / Nerissa Michaels/Illinois River Biological Station, via Detroit Free Press
