We need a barrier for muddled thinking

By Mike Jackson

The spring coho run is on. The bluegill surge is on. The crappie onslaught in on and just starting to explode. The big lake perch action is on, off, on again, and off again. The smelt run is more of a crawl than a run, and is hardly ever truly “on” in Chicago.

But another kind of fish story deserves our attention: The Asian carp invasion is stealthily moving ahead, slowly eating its way through anything in its path.

Here in Illinois, there's an electronic barrier in place in the Chicago Sanitary Shipping Canal. This electronic zapper is supposed to at least impede the progress of the invasion.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced to the world that bighead carp, often called Asian carp and silver carp, could be a threat to the Great Lakes.

On that note, the federal government recently decreed it illegal to bring live bighead carp into the U.S. or transport them across state lines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a rule adding the bighead to a list of species banned under the Lacey Act, which is designed to prevent the spread of species harmful to humans or other wildlife.

As many of you already know, bighead and silver carp have been migrating up the Mississippi River and its tributaries and are threatening to invade the Great Lakes, where they could starve out other fish, damage the economy and throw the lake's admittedly man-made natural order into a messier-still state. Silver carp already are on the banned list but swim freely in the Illinois River.

Canadian authorities recently have caught several importers trying to smuggle live carp into Ontario.

Now, I realize that the USFWS has done some very commendable work over the years, especially in the waterfowl department and enforcement issues in southern states. But I will probably never excuse the agency for the circus act they produced in Palatine some years back pertaining to the Canada goose story.

Area residents have been forced to gingerly tiptoe through and around the goose issue for many years. The geese we see here stick around the area in the winter because there is tons of green grass and other food items for the geese — deep, weed-covered ditches, as well as kindhearted souls who put out food for these giant critters in an effort to be neighborly to the winged ones. But when all is said and done, the geese always show their true colors by being sloppy, lazy guests when leaving the remains of the day as they fly off to greener pastures.

So here comes the USFWS to town to hold a series of public hearings. Biologists for the agency told us they wanted to hear from the public what the agency should do about the Canada goose problem. I couldn't believe what my ears were hearing.

Here we had paid scientists in order to ask the lay people what should be done. And of course the animal rights folks spoke out loudly in defense of the geese.

By the end of the hearing it was my contention nothing was accomplished since we never heard word one from the agency again. Not surprising, when one considers there were about 25 unique opinions expressed in the room.

Now, back to the fish issue at hand. The Army Corps of Engineers spent a lot of money, about $9 million, to construct an electric fish barrier on the Chicago Sanitary Shipping Canal to stop Asian carp, and still it looks like a boondoggle. The barrier, it seems, doesn't completely work.

So once again our precious tax dollars slide right through the fingers of bureaucrats and into the clearer waters of Lake Michigan to wind up as snack food for the voracious Asian carp, swimming along their merry way.

Ÿ Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, and catch his radio show 6-7 a.m. Sundays on WSBC 1240-AM.