The dreaded Asian carp might have a pathway to Toledo that doesn't flow through Chicago.
Though he conceded it is only a remote possibility, John Goss, retired Indiana Department of Natural Resources director, told The Blade yesterday that federal officials should not overlook how carp got into the western part of the Hooiser State about five years ago and are now in Indiana's Wabash River, making their way toward Fort Wayne.
He said they could conceivably wind up in the Maumee River at its headwaters near Fort Wayne.
Though the Wabash isn't connected to the Maumee, the two rivers are in the same floodplain and come within a couple of miles of each other. If Fort Wayne were to experience a major flood, carp in the Wabash could get into the Maumee, Mr. Goss said.
"It's a remote possibility, but I think it should be studied," said Mr. Goss, executive director of the Indiana Wildlife Federation, a group that represents a number of Indiana wildlife, fishing, hunting, and conservation groups.
Two species of Asian carp, the silver and bighead carp, are among the Great Lakes region's most feared exotic fish. Their size and voracious eating habits threaten to obliterate other fish species and their habitat.
While most of the focus has been on the carp threatening to enter southwestern Lake Michigan through a series of waterways that connect it to the Mississippi River, some of the carp got diverted by the Ohio River and ended up in the Wabash near where Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky meet.
The carp were brought into North America by Southern fish hatcheries that had used them to clean pond scum. They escaped when the Mississippi flooded in 1995.
The Maumee is one of the Great Lakes region's largest tributaries and one of its most prolific spawning grounds. It flows into western Lake Erie's Maumee Bay, one of the most popular areas for the region's multimillion-dollar sportfishing industry.
The federal government's recent disclosure of a spawning population of Asian carp in the Wabash surprised U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), who co-chairs a Senate Great Lakes task force with U.S. Sen. George Voinovich (R., Ohio).
In a statement yesterday, Mr. Levin said that having Asian carp "mere miles away from the Great Lakes basin is yet another alarm calling us to address this clear threat."
He said he was urging the Army Corps of Engineers to be more proactive in Indiana and the Chicago area, especially in light of last week's discovery of an adult Asian carp in Lake Calumet in Illinois.
U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) and Richard Durbin (D., Ill.), and U.S. Rep. Dave Camp (R., Mich.) have introduced legislation that would require the Army Corps to develop cost estimates for separating Lake Michigan from the waterways that connect it to the Mississippi.
Environmental groups reacted with surprise to the Wabash revelation, made during a congressional briefing.
"There is a lack of coordination and transparency in the current system and this current finding in the Wabash River highlights the breakdown in this system," said Kristy Meyer, director of Agricultural & Clean Water Programs of the Ohio Environmental Council. "
Now, more than ever, the state and federal agencies must stop the finger-pointing and get their act together."
Contact Tom Henry at:
thenry@theblade.com
or 419-724-6079.
First Published July 2, 2010, 12:42 p.m.