Bomb the Asian carp into submission

Why, after what seems to be a decade, are we still reading about our elected officials trying to find funding to curb the threat of Asian and Bighead carp in the Great Lakes? The Feb. 16 Daily Herald editorial says that U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert are looking for funding for the fish fight. After so long, they're just now looking for funding?

Why don't we just try some experiments, some novel ideas to drive the carp back down river? What if Gov. Pat Quinn authorized the Illinois National Guard to, as they say, “bomb the carp into submission?”

The fish are migrating farther north to find food and space in the face of river crowding as they overbreed. Soon the biggest and strongest will make it through the electronic fences that have held them at bay. If we killed a significant fraction of them, they might be less inclined to migrate north.

It is well documented that underwater explosions kill fish. So why not have the National Guard, under direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, “bomb” the river? The dead fish could then be harvested by commercial fishermen and sold to farmers to be used as fertilizer for corn to feed our ethanol plants — little chance of entering the food-chain and creating another problem.

The farmers could use something like a giant tree chipper to chop-up the dead fish and spray them on their fields. Gov. Quinn encouraged people to eat the slimy beasts, but their boney structures were not so palatable.

I can hear folks saying we'll kill the last of the other species in the Illinois River. But isn't that a much smaller cost then having the carp get into Lake Michigan? Our officials should try something, anything, instead of just lamenting their lack of funding.

Lincoln Lockhart

Naperville