Detroit Free Press environmental reporter Tina Lam joins Greening of the Great Lakes this week to discuss her six-part series on Asian carp. In it, she tries to unravel the web of complex, often contradictory information surrounding the impacts of Asian carp in the Mississippi River Basin, and what it would mean if Asian carp migrated into the Great Lakes.
Lam traveled with video reporter Brian Kaufman to Baton Rouge, La., and then up the Mississippi River until reaching the Great Lakes region, interviewing scientists, anglers, businessmen and government officials about the Asian carp menace.
Surprisingly, as Lam talked with more and more stakeholders in areas infested with Asian carp, she discovered the fish wasn't having quite the dramatic impact on ecosystems that many fear if Asian carp ever reached the Great Lakes.
"In the Great Lakes, we've often heard that if Asian carp get into one of our lakes, it's game over," says Lam. "What we have learned from our trip is that it's not game over—it's taken decades for Asian carp to establish themselves in the Mississippi."
She found inconsistencies between most anglers on what native fish species are decreasing in number because of Asian carp. Scientists she spoke with often reported while some native species are thinner or fewer in number than usual, the dire predictions that Asian carp will outcompete native fish for food and starve them off may be premature.
Lam also learned that even when reviewing the scientific literature on the subject of Asian carp, one must be wary. In her own research Lam uncovered a significant misinterpretation of fact. It has been widely reported in the media that Asian carp comprise 80 to even 95% of some rivers in the Mississippi River basin. When Lam talked with Asian carp expert Duane Chapman of the USGS to verify these claims, Chapman feared it referred back to a statement taken out of context from an informative lecture he gave on Asian carp. According to Chapman, on one of his research outings to specifically sample for Asian carp, 80% of his catch consisted of the invasive species. If his equipment had been set up to target every fish species in the river, he believes he would've had different results.
"It's often hard to wrestle these things to the ground," says Lam. "That's why there continues to be policy debates because the science is not completely clear."
Funding encompasses just one area of debate. As the government pours money into the Great Lakes region to prevent Asian carp from entering, little financial support is given to southern states where the fish are breeding. Lacking the resources to harvest the fish in these states, their numbers keep multiplying.
"If you don't get rid of these seed populations, no matter what you do in the Great Lakes those fish are going to keep swimming north in search of new food and habitat," says Lam.
One of the most recognized and controversial solutions to this problem is hydologically separating the Great Lakes Basin from the Mississippi by closing the Chicago Sanitary Canal. While it appears this issue is "being studied to death," Lam believes no swift progress will made unless Great Lakes states reach out to southern states already battling Asian carp. With Illinois and Indiana opposing the separation, Great Lakes states simply won't have enough pull in Congress to get the canal closed, Lam suggests.
"We need to be thinking of this as a national problem and not just a Great Lakes issue," says Lam.