
The White House has tapped a former leader of the Indiana Department
of Natural Resources and the Indiana Wildlife Federation as the
Asian carp czar to oversee the federal response to keeping the
invasive species out of the Great Lakes.
On a conference call today with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and other
congressional leaders, President Obama's Council on Environmental
Quality announced the selection of John Goss to lead the near $80
million, multi-pronged federal attack against Asian carp.
"This is a serious challenge, a serious threat," Durbin said. "When
it comes to the Asian carp threat, we are not in denial. We are not
in a go-slow mode. We are in a full attack, full-speed ahead mode.
We want to stop this carp from advancing."
Asian carp, which have steadily moved toward Chicago since the
1990s, present a challenge for scientists and fish biologists. The
fish are aggressive eaters, consuming as much as 40 percent of their
body weight a day in plankton, and frequently beat out native fish
for food, threatening those populations.
They are also prolific breeders with no natural predators in the
U.S. The fish were imported in the 1970s to help wastewater
treatment facilities in the South keep their retention ponds clean.
Mississippi River flooding allowed the fish to escape and then move
into the Missouri and Illinois rivers. Some species can grow to more
than 100 pounds.
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Seems Raaacist to be against
Asian carp and not other ethnic carp. Just sayin'.
There's going to be a lot of
confusion between the Carp Czar and the Crap Czars.
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