Asian carp

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Asian carp, any of several species of fish belonging to the carp family (Cyprinidae) that are native to eastern Asia, particularly China and Russia, and naturalized in some American waterways. The grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus), and silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), following their accidental introduction into waterways in the United States, are collectively referred to as Asian carp.

Asian carp were taken to North America during the 1960s and ’70s to control the growth of noxious aquatic plants, snails, and other pest organisms in ponds, fish farms, and small lakes. Floods and bait release by sport fishers allowed members of these species, which had proved invasive in other parts of the world, to colonize the Mississippi River system. Bighead and silver carp were considered the most significant threat because of their overconsumption of plankton. Scientists feared that Asian carp might enter Lake Michigan from the Illinois River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and subsequently disturb the ecological dynamics of the Great Lakes. Beginning in 2002, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed a series of electric fish barriers in the canal to prevent this from occurring.

In December 2009 the Illinois Department of Natural Resources engineered a massive fish kill in the canal, using a piscicide (fish poison) called rotenone. This effort was designed to assess the current range of the carp and to prevent further encroachment; one specimen of Asian carp was found in the treated area. Weeks later, amid protestations from shipping interests, the state of Michigan filed a lawsuit against Illinois in the U.S. Supreme Court to compel the state to close locks in Chicago and surrounding areas to slow the spread of the fish. The lawsuit was rejected in January 2010. A month later, Asian carp DNA was detected in Lake Michigan, and further studies were initiated to determine if the carp had reached the Great Lakes.

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In January 2012 the Great Lakes Commission, an interstate compact agency made up of the eight U.S. states that border the Great Lakes, along with the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, recommended that the Mississippi River and Great Lakes watersheds be physically separated in order to prevent the spread of the fish to Lake Michigan.

In October 2013 scientists announced that four grass carp had been breeding in the Sandusky River, a short stream that flows into Lake Erie. These individuals had naturally reproduced in the Sandusky; there was no evidence that the presence of the fish was the result of stocking or accidental release from a fish farm. Although the diet of the grass carp is limited to some species of aquatic plants, scientists fear that they could greatly reduce the supply of aquatic vegetation. The scientists also noted that other shorter rivers feeding into the Great Lakes could serve as spawning sites for the grass carp and other Asian carp species.