Andrew Robertshaw
This article covered a possible dilemma that the Great Lakes region could be dealing with in the near future. Evidence of Asian Carp has shown up close to Lake Michigan in the waterway that links the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan. This fish is enormous and is supposedly a well established conqueror of the Mississippi River. The carp can weigh as much as 100 pounds. Scientists fear that if the fish were to swim into Lake Michigan that the ecosystem of this region would change completely. This is a large concern because the Great Lakes make up one fifth of the earth’s fresh water. This issue is leading to searches for the fish to prevent their unwanted presence.
These fish were first brought here in the 1970’s to help eat at the algae from ponds in the Deep South. Due to this fact, we should not look to nature for this dilemma we will be faced with, but rather look toward our original actions that ultimately developed into this problem. Although it is our fault, I don’t think we can really put the blame on ourselves. Who would have thought that a fish put in ponds to consume algae, a beneficial reason, would end up escaping from ponds, and ultimately cause a problem almost forty years later.
Scientists believe that this problem can be handled at many ways. Dams, levees, and flood diversion projects are just a few of the solutions. They redirect the water to solve the problem, but often this will lead to new unwanted circumstances. $20 million has been spent to build high tech electric fences in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to keep the carp from entering Lake Michigan. This will ultimately help the problem but will not solve it completely. Another outstretched permanent solution would be to put all the fish back where they should be and then separate the lakes from the Mississippi River watershed.
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Courtesy of Jahnna Rymer:
Be Careful What You Fish For
By MONICA DAVEY
Chicago Alarms are sounding near the edge of the Great Lakes. Genetic evidence of Asian carp a mammoth, voracious, non-native conqueror among fish, long established in the Mississippi River has turned up just a few miles from Lake Michigan in the waterway that links the river system to the lake. If these creatures were to swim on into Lake Michigan, some scientists say they fear the fish would ultimately upend the entire ecosystem in the lakes that make up a fifth of the earth’s fresh surface water.
Forgotten in all the fuss now is that these bighead and silver carp imported in the 1970s to scarf up algae from ponds in the Deep South are apparently making their way north to the Great Lakes along a route that humans, not nature, dreamed up. Still, those who know carp best say even a whiff of them is much to worry about, especially for the Great Lakes’ $7-billion-a-year fishing industry. The carp can weigh as much as 100 pounds, and the silver carp has a habit of jumping, seeming to challenge boaters as much as it does other fish. They eat pretty much all the time, vacuuming up the plankton that other fish depend on and crowding the others out. Although, only the fish’s DNA was found and it might be a fuss over nothing, Scientists and environmentalists want to take measures and precautions.
This article relates to earth science because it demonstrates how a change in the habitat of an animal can affect an entire ecosystem. This article successfully shows why humans should bring exotic organisms to areas because unaware of their effect drastic changes can be produced to the environment. This fish now illustrates a drastic change that might make our environment and our economy drop. The loss of fish and other organisms as a cause of this fish might be devastating to fish trade and production in industries and other nations as well. In other words, although it remains unproven the existence of the fish among our waters, this is a valuable lesson. It should allow us to realize the fragility of our ecosystem and how our actions affect it.
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