The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports this morning on the netting of a black carp, an Asian exotic, in the Mississippi River north of St. Louis. It's the third such fish caught in the river in the last year and a half, and the paper says it "has raised concern that the voracious feeder now is established in the wild."
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4870936.html
This is one of the species of Asian carp that worries Great Lakes fisheries officials. The electronic barrier installed in the Illinois River may or may not work to stop them.
Says the Star Tribune: "Fisheries officials from 27 states asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service four years ago to restrict the interstate trade in black carp and prohibit further importation by putting the fish on its "injurious species list."
The service has been studying the issue, but has not acted despite calls to do so by more than two dozen members of Congress."
Will it take another ecosystem disaster to awaken our policymakers to the threat? They should be slapping tough regulations on the importation of exotics and also be halting the invasion of alien species through ballast water by halting the transit of oceangoing vessels at Montreal.
Posted by Dave at July 12, 2004 08:53 AM