Update: Rep. Bledsoe Holds Town Hall on Asian Carp

Recently, state Representative Tim Bledsoe (D-Grosse Pointe) held a town hall meeting at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial on the topic of Asian carp, a voracious invasive species that is knocking on the door of Lake Michigan. Michigan LCV's Campaign Director, Bill Kirk, was on the panel, along with Nick Schroeck, incoming executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, Kelley Smith, chief of fisheries from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, and Susan Harley, Michigan policy director for Clean Water Action.

Despite a snowy night with terrible roads, at least 100 concerned citizens turned out to learn more about the threat. Even though almost everyone in Michigan is familiar with this aggressive fish that leaps out of the water, strikes boaters and gobbles up the bottom of the food chain, effectively starving out all native species, most attendees did not know the severity of the threat, or the actions that are necessary to solve the problem.

After presentations from scientists, lawyers and environmental advocates, it was much clearer what invasion would mean for the Great Lakes, especially Lake St. Clair. If the Asian carp breach barriers to rivers and canals in Indiana and Illinois and enter Lake Michigan, it's only a matter of time before they eventually swim their way around the Great Lakes, into Lake St. Clair and wreak environmental and economical disaster.

The panel turned to the Mississippi River for examples, where the carp has been making it's journey to the Great Lakes since the 1970s. The river currently has a biomass of about 80% carp. That means that out of all the living things in the Mississippi, 80% of them are now carp. The Mississippi is also lined with empty marinas because the carp have destroyed opportunities for recreational boating and fishing.

Compare this to the Great Lakes, and it's easy to see what it would happen: the carp will effectively kill off our salmon, walleye and other small fish, destroy our $7 billion sport fishing industry, and obliterate additional travel and tourism dollars.

As far as possible solutions, the panel outlined short-term and long-term solutions. Poisoning, electric fences and other control efforts, while currently used, are not completely effective. And even though closing the canal is the best option right now, the locks are not watertight and the fish could make it into Lake Michigan. Permanent ecological and hydrological separation of the Great Lakes Basin and the Mississippi River Basin remains the only viable long-term solution. This would involve a massive re-engineering of the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal, which was created at the beginning of the 1900s so that the city of Chicago could send its waste downriver. Many Chicago and Illinois officials have resisted this option, but recent developments signal that a compromise might be in the works.

When it came time for questions, the attendees eagerly expressed their desire to address the problem and they were curious to find out what they could do to help. Two words - take action! Sign petitions, write, email and fax Congress, and call the White House. Tell Congress and President Obama to protect the Great Lakes from the threat of the Asian carp.

Whatever happens, one thing is clear from the town hall meeting: Michiganders love the Great Lakes, and will go to great lengths to protect them.

Click here to view photos from the town hall.