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Bighead
carp threatens Great Lakes
South Bend
Tribune - 8/1
Massive carp that
have been known to jump some 10 feet out of the water and wallop
boaters in the Mississippi River have been spotted in Lake Erie,
raising fears that the nonnative species may spread throughout the
Great Lakes.
The bighead carp
are another recent example of invasive species threatening
ecosystems.
Some nonnative
fish are probably dumped from home aquariums and unable to survive
for long. But fisheries experts say invasive fish have the
potential to cause havoc with aquatic ecosystems.
"They can
compete -- and sometimes out-compete -- with the native wildlife
for food in that area, which can throw the ecosystem off,"
said Mitch Snow, a spokesman with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
That happened
with zebra mussels.
Brought to the
United States in the ballast water of oceangoing ships in the
1980s, zebra mussels spread rapidly through the Great Lakes and
other inland waterways and have caused millions in damage to power
plants and boats.
Only a couple of
bighead carp have been caught in Lake Erie, though some biologists
believe they spotted one July 17.
Robert
Wellington, an aquatic biologist with Erie County Health
Department, was with some colleagues and a group of students in
Presque Isle Bay when a massive fish surfaced.
"I would
estimate that it could have been between 30 and 50 pounds,"
said Wellington, a lifelong angler. Others in the boat said it was
about 5 feet long.
"It was a
tremendous fish," he said.
Marc Gaden, a
spokesman for the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, said most
biologists believe the bighead carp sightings in Lake Erie have
been isolated incidents.
But fisheries
experts fear they will adapt eventually to the Great Lakes.
Bigheads have been spotted as close as 25 miles away from Lake
Michigan in the Mississippi River.
The Army Corps of
Engineers has erected an electrical barrier that it hopes will
stop the fish, Gaden said.
"This has
all the makings of another zebra mussel (situation)," he
said. "Once the species makes the Great Lakes their home ...
you can't get rid of them."
Bigheads were
imported from Asia in the 1970s and 1980s to control plankton in
fish farms in the South, said Jerry Rasmussen, a biologist with
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a coordinator with the
Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Association.
"I've seen
them jump into boats and I've seen them jump 6 to 10 feet into the
air," he said. "They're pretty astounding."
Though he hopes
the barrier works, he said there's a good chance they'll get in.
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