Last June I Blogged about the Asian Carp and the MNR’s Rapid Response Plan – a strategy put together by that jurisdiction to deal with this horrible invasive species.
This is that post:
http://blogs.canoe.com/outdoorsguy/safety/asian-carp-mnr-rapid-response-plan/
Here we are 8-months later and talks in the US of a ‘permanent’ physical barrier being built, is finally back in the news. Unfortunately, though, the news south of the border is not great as a private consulting firm put the Asian Carp Barrier price-tag at over 3 Billion dollars!
USAtoday had this to say on the subject:
The cheapest solution would cost taxpayers more than $3 billion and would take at least a decade to complete.
The study, which cost $2 million and was funded by several foundations, says separating the two watersheds would create jobs and could end up being cheaper than spending money every year to fight invasive species.
The article went on to say:
The engineering study proposes one to five new barriers near Chicago, rerouting cargo and pleasure boats, and building huge tunnels to handle floodwaters that could no longer go into Lake Michigan.
Funding would need to come from Congress. More than $80 million has been spent fighting Asian carp in the past two years from federal Great Lakes funds; the fight against invasive sea lamprey costs $20 million per year.
Some scientists fear Asian carp could take over the Great Lakes if they were able to get into Lake Michigan in sufficient numbers.
A similar study by the Army Corps of Engineers is due in late 2015.
Still, whether Congress is willing to foot the multibillion-dollar bill for stopping invasive species is unknown.
“Physically separating the Great Lakes and Mississippi watersheds watersheds is the best long-term solution for preventing the movement of Asian carp and other aquatic invasive species, and our report demonstrates that it can be done,” said Tim Eder, executive director of the commission.”
With a pretty good understanding of what would happen should these ugly fish make it into the Great Lakes, I don’t think I’m the only one who’s a tad nervous!
Outdoorsguy
This is a totally unrelated blast from the past hunting photo from November, 1990 ….Yukon Bob is pictured in the top left and yours truly is in there as well, cept I’m not sure which one (could be the Waylon Jennings look alike):
