New York's Attorney General: Asian carp will hurt Great Lakes industry

[Bozita]

Source: AP

New York's Attorney General: Asian carp will hurt Great Lakes industry
By The Associated Press
January 03, 2010, 7:39PM


New York's attorney general says he'll join the legal effort to keep Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes because the species could devastate the fishing industry and the environment.

Andrew Cuomo said he'll file a brief in U.S. Supreme Court on Monday supporting Michigan's request to sever a century-old Chicago canal connecting Lake Michigan and the Mississippi water basin.

Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ohio also are supporting the request.

Illinois' attorney general's office is reviewing the suit.

Read more: http://www.mlive.com/news/us-world/index.ssf/2010/01/new_yorks_attorney_general_asi.html

[sasquatch]

1. +1

[hedgehog]

2. I understand the actual case here, but am I the only one who

had a brief vision of Attorney General Cuomo serving an injunction on a fish?

[greengestalt]

3. Shouldn't have gotten rid of Snake Heads then

I concepted a political cartoon, had a Chinaman in Maoist uniform dumping a bucket of Snake Head fish into a lake. At the edge, a man was fishing and saw his fish was being eaten by one of those giant adult ones. His dog was panicking as it was being dragged into the water by it's tail by another one.


The Chinaman said: "Youah Noah Wohlly, Lound Eye! They taste Gleat!!!"


But my publishers rejected it as "People will think it's racist..."


And I actually dated a cute, plump but cute, Chinese lady years back she confirmed this:-) She even made the suggestion that those fish would be far more efficient in US waters for converting biomass into usable, delicious meat. She has her own computer business and is well off and likes to eat, like me, a bit too much. She'd eagerly paid the in the 90s US$30 for Snake Head. Rainbow Trout (my fav) cost her $100 and she had it once, but Snake head was better.


If they'd kept the snake head fish, there'd be none of these Carp. Why do you think they jump? Futile, though, a mated pair of snake heads co-ordinates hunts. Know what they'd also do? They can cross land, especially when it's wet. Any ranchers out there? They'll crawl into holes and eat prairie dogs up to 1 mile from any river, even a creek they hide in. Don't discourage them from your irrigation ditches and most of the bad insects will dissapear along with the rats. We'd have all this wasted biomass of chiefly suckers, minnows that are a by-product of "Bucket Biology" and other fish turned into massive piles of super efficient Snake Head fish, easy to catch (they eat and eat and eat, so a baited hook is their one weakness) and very good to eat. The larger ones will get rid of the South American rats, and also the Gators will be under control for no infant gator can survive a river with them in. Lots of what we now call "Trash" can be eaten by them too. They grow at a 3:10 ratio, versus the standard 1:10 so ten pounds of biomass makes three pounds of SnakeHead versus one (or much less) of our more common game fishes.


They'd grow huge in our waters, and we'd also have a new industry of selling them back to Chinese and other people from Asia who'd be amazed at the size and quality.

[nemo137]

4. Not entirely sure that's a good idea.

The Great Lakes are pretty vulnerable, and I have visions of cane toads dancing in my head.

[SnakeEyes]

5. How did

the Asian carp get to where it is now?

[NashVegas]

10. Did They Show Up In Balast?

From ships entering the Great Lakes via Erie Canal?

[amandabeech]

13. Ships enter the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway,

which starts at Montreal.

I'm not sure that all sections of the Erie Canal are still operating.

The St. Lawrence Seaway is very narrow for today's ships. The Erie Canal, even in its heyday, is much narrower than the St. Lawrence.

[NashVegas]

15. That'd Work, Too

But the general idea remains the same: international shipping.

[wordpix]

11. there's a canal connecting L. Michigan to Miss. R, reversing flow of river

I"m not sure if the carp came via the Miss. R. or through other Gt. Lakes. Hopefully, it's time we see all all of these massive engineering feats like changing the flow of rivers as BAD. I'm for changing it back to the way the Great Spirit had it before the white man came.

snip: Andrew Cuomo said he'll file a brief in U.S. Supreme
Court on Monday supporting Michigan's request to sever
a century-old Chicago canal connecting Lake Michigan and the
Mississippi water basin.

[Historic NY]

6. I thought they already poisoned the canal & killed them.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B25R220091204

[groundloop]

7. Biologists have recently found Asian Carp DNA in Lake Michigan

So apparently their fears are well founded. I'd read about this a week or so ago, can't remember the source.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. Poison doesn't stay around

I think the plaintiffs are looking for a more permanent solution, like filling the canal with dirt or something.

I also think it's a lot of fuss just to delay the inevitable. Those carp will be in the lakes sometime soon, if not already.

[Canuckistanian]

9. I hope they at least eat zebra mussel larvae

Or Lamprey Eels. Probably not, though.

Perhaps Canada should join in this legal action as well. NAFTA should be good for SOMETHING.

[amandabeech]

14. According to some locals in my home area of Michigan,

these things eat Quagga muscles, which are even more of a problem than the zebras. The Quaggas have out-compteed the Zebras in many areas, and are able to live in places that the Zebras can't.

[Canuckistanian]

17. I've never heard of those

But after Googling, I see that they're already in Lake Erie. The Zebras have already turned most of our Great Lakes beaches white from the crushed shells and there are millions spent cleaning water intakes for water and hydro plants.

Ecologically, this is a mess. Even if we solve the invasive species problem, the "cure" may start another problem that nobody ever thought of.

[amandabeech]

19. White beaches?

My fave beaches on Lake Michigan are still the traditional light golden tan.

[wordpix]

12. since humans have proven themselves utterly capable of driving fish/wildlife extinct, why not

fish out these carp to extinction? Maybe they'd be good for the pet food industry or fertilizers. :shrug:

[Mari333]

16. people eat them in asian countries

they are supposed to be tasty but they breed like rabbits.

[jpak]

18. Why Oh Why did anyone even allow these things to be raised in outdoor ponds in the 1st place?

Stupid Stupid Stupid