LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Michigan and Illinois along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have reached an agreement on dealing with Asian carp.
The plan will open funding for the Brandon Road Lock and Dam project near Joliet, Illinois to complete the first phase of the work to keep the invasive fish from Lake Michigan.
Michigan Governor Whitmer says the agreement “will help us get shovels in the ground as soon as possible.” The federal government is paying 90-percent of the costs.
Officials says the carp threaten to out-compete other fish for food and habitat, reducing numbers of whitefish, perch and walleye, while also menacing inland lakes and rivers if they were to colonize the Great Lakes basin. Advocates and officials worry the invaders could devastate the Great Lakes fishery, valued at $7 billion annually.
Silver carp are also known to leap through the air, injuring boaters in the Illinois River and other areas where they are present, disrupting the use of the waterways for recreation.
The invasive carp were imported to the U.S. in the 1970s to control algae and parasite growth in aquatic farms, weeds in canal systems and as a form of sewage treatment, but the captive fish escaped into the Mississippi River and have since made their way up the waterway.
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