Healthy lakes are critical for our economy: By Julie Peller Ph.D.

Green Junction

                Invasive carp (bighead and silver carp, also called Asian carp) are native to China but invasive in the United States. These fish were introduced to America in the 1970s, when fish farms in the southern part of the country used carp to clean aquaculture facilities because they are filter feeders. It is speculated that when the facilities flooded, Asian carp escaped into local rivers and, by the 1980s, were found in the Mississippi River basin. They rapidly thrived, outcompeted many natural species, and moved north. They can now be found in 12 states. Their presence in the Illinois River, which connects to the Great Lakes through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, is of great concern.

                For the past few decades, people have been worried that the carp, which can reach 110 pounds (the average size of bighead carp is about 40 pounds) could bypass Chicago and enter the Great Lakes. The potential for ecosystem devastation from this invasion is enormous, along with losses in boating, fishing, and tourism. After years of studies, plans to keep the carp out of the Great Lakes have culminated in the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

This is a $1.15 billion barrier to keep Asian carp from entering the channel connecting the Mississippi River Basin to the Great Lakes. The lock and dam upgrade will create a bubble wall, acoustic blasts, an electric barrier, and a flushing mechanism to prevent carp from passing through. Over the past few years, government programs that pay fishermen an extra 10 cents per pound of carp have kept carp populations in check. Still, this infrastructure is required to keep carp from entering the Great Lakes and devastating freshwater ecosystems. These large fish have no natural predators in the freshwater lakes. 

                It is critically important to protect the Great Lakes that provide drinking water to over 40 million people in the United States and Canada. These freshwater lakes contain about one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water supply and 84% of North America’s surface fresh water.  According to the Great Lakes Commission, “Healthy lakes are critical for our economy, and our culture, the environment, but they require constant care.”

Julie Peller, Ph.D., is an environmental chemist (Professor of Chemistry at Valparaiso University). She has been writing a weekly column called The Green Junction for the past seven years and is helping move the call of Laudato Si to action. Her research interests include advanced oxidation for aqueous solutions, water quality analyses, emerging contaminants, air quality analyses, challenges along the Lake Michigan shoreline (such as Cladophora, water, and sediment contaminants), and student and citizen participation in environmental work.