Asian Carp Fighters Hope Not To Get Trumped

Federal agencies have released their plan for keeping Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes this year, and say they hope the Trump administration will see the value of fighting the invasive fish.

According to the agencies, they plan to use $17 million from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The dollars will go toward finishing an additional electronic carp barrier west of Chicago, hiring anglers to remove large numbers of carp in the Upper Illinois River and completing more studies on the use of water jets and sound to repel the fish.

Bill Bolen of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has been studying the hungry carp’s potential threat to sportfish in the Great Lakes.

“So in my mind, that’s encouraging news for their attention to this very pressing environmental issue,” Bolen said.

Last fall, researchers concluded the main population front of two types of Asian Carp — bighead and silver carps — is about 50 miles from Lake Michigan.