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The Michigan Messenger going forward

By Staff Report | 11.16.11

I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]

Colorado-based abstinence program provided false and misleading information to Michigan students

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.16.11

An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.

Class action lawsuit filed against MERS over unpaid taxes

foreclosure
By Todd A. Heywood | 11.15.11

Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.

Schuette fights important mercury regulations

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By Eartha Jane Melzer | 11.14.11

Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.

Despite fears of job loss carp meetings remain civil

By Eartha Jane Melzer | 02.23.10 | 11:23 am

Last week when the International Joint Commission hosted an Ypsilanti hearing on the federal framework for combating Asian carp, many of those who testified where the same Chicago area maritime workers that dominated the hearing held by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago earlier this month.

The Chicago people, concerned that their upcoming boating and shipping season could be ruined by closure of the locks in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal, had chartered a bus to Michigan and they raised concerns about closure of the locks clearly and repeatedly.

Andy Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation also attended and spoke at both hearings. Buchsbaum is concerned that the Army Corps of Engineers — the group responsible for deciding whether to close locks as part of a carp control strategy — is more concerned with navigation than ecology, and he worries that all the focus on lock closure has distracted from the overall mission of blocking the movement of living organisms between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.

Despite these concerns, on his blog Buchsbaum writes that the demeanor of the Chicago industry people has given him some optimism about efforts to stop the Asian carp from migrating into the Great Lakes.

As united and passionate as the Chicago shipping and boating community was against lock closure or changes in operations, they were respectful and polite to speakers who disagreed with them. That’s very promising. I’ve been at meetings before where a group of speakers were worried they’d lose their jobs, and usually the hostility to speakers with other points of view is palpable. Maybe because the Chicago industry really does seem committed to stopping the advance of Asian carp, that hostility was absent, and they sometimes even applauded folks who disagreed with them.

What this tells me is that there’s still hope for the Great Lakes community to move forward together on stopping Asian carp. Despite differences in approach and strategy, protecting the Great Lakes is a goal that continues to unite us all. From a purely technical standpoint, stopping the invasive carp is a really tough problem. We’ll need that unity if we hope to succeed.

Comments

  • billkarmik

    Asian Carp – Solutions

    Much has been focused on closing the Chicago Area Locks as the “end all” solution. This will not stop Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan. These locks were not built to stop fish from migrating. Then there’s the experimental test called Environmental DNA testing (e-DNA). A “positive” test result only means that a sample of a fish scale, feces, urine, mucoidal secretion or fish remains was possibly identified. This test has never been independently tested, confirmed or approved, nor has it ever been used anywhere else than in the Chicago area. Funding for the test, supported by the State of Michigan, runs out in June 2010. Then add the fact that scientists do not know if these fish can even survive in the cold, deep waters of the Great Lakes. What to do?

    Commercially fish the carp to annihilation and subsidize the expansion of the commercial fishing industry. Invite Great Lakes fishermen to help. Build more processing plants to process the fish into food and fertilizer. Complete the second and third barriers. Add sound, bubble and fencing barriers: stops the carp migration and isolates them downstream. Fact is the first barrier has been effective; no Asian carp have been spotted or found past the barriers upriver, the nearest Asian carp are 30-40 miles downriver. Lastly, Rotenone toxin can be implemented. But this does not provide jobs and food. It kills ALL life in the area affected, creating a local “kill zone” where applied, so it should be used sparingly.

    These measures will increase jobs and revenue. These solutions have the potential to pull in billions of dollars to the local communities and governments, and at the same time, not have a negative effect on the Chicago area or the Great Lakes area. And kill CARP.

  • chicagoharbormaster

    The Chicago Marine Industry hates the Carp and we want the focus to be on proven effective ways to kill & stop carp migrations. Closing the Chicago lock, the second busiest in the nation based off of fear will not solve or even help out that issue. We need to get lock closures off the table so we can spend all of our time focusing on effective less invasive tools to stop carp migrations. They are out there. We also need to stop funding this edna science project that basically is a tool with no use in the fight against the carp. It does not tell us how the edna got there, or if there are fish, or how many fish, or when they might have been there or if they were there at all. So what is the point? Capture and/or direct observation provides the most solid confirmation of the presence of Asian Carp. There has been no Asian Carp caught or seen over 40 miles from Chicago or above the electric barrier. We poisoned, netted, shocked the river but NO asian carp. Let's go kill them where we know they are instead of spending time and money searching for them where they are not.

  • billkarmik

    Asian Carp – Solutions

    Much has been focused on closing the Chicago Area Locks as the “end all” solution. This will not stop Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan. These locks were not built to stop fish from migrating. Then there’s the experimental test called Environmental DNA testing (e-DNA). A “positive” test result only means that a sample of a fish scale, feces, urine, mucoidal secretion or fish remains was possibly identified. This test has never been independently tested, confirmed or approved, nor has it ever been used anywhere else than in the Chicago area. Funding for the test, supported by the State of Michigan, runs out in June 2010. Then add the fact that scientists do not know if these fish can even survive in the cold, deep waters of the Great Lakes. What to do?

    Commercially fish the carp to annihilation and subsidize the expansion of the commercial fishing industry. Invite Great Lakes fishermen to help. Build more processing plants to process the fish into food and fertilizer. Complete the second and third barriers. Add sound, bubble and fencing barriers: stops the carp migration and isolates them downstream. Fact is the first barrier has been effective; no Asian carp have been spotted or found past the barriers upriver, the nearest Asian carp are 30-40 miles downriver. Lastly, Rotenone toxin can be implemented. But this does not provide jobs and food. It kills ALL life in the area affected, creating a local “kill zone” where applied, so it should be used sparingly.

    These measures will increase jobs and revenue. These solutions have the potential to pull in billions of dollars to the local communities and governments, and at the same time, not have a negative effect on the Chicago area or the Great Lakes area. And kill CARP.

  • chicagoharbormaster

    The Chicago Marine Industry hates the Carp and we want the focus to be on proven effective ways to kill & stop carp migrations. Closing the Chicago lock, the second busiest in the nation based off of fear will not solve or even help out that issue. We need to get lock closures off the table so we can spend all of our time focusing on effective less invasive tools to stop carp migrations. They are out there. We also need to stop funding this edna science project that basically is a tool with no use in the fight against the carp. It does not tell us how the edna got there, or if there are fish, or how many fish, or when they might have been there or if they were there at all. So what is the point? Capture and/or direct observation provides the most solid confirmation of the presence of Asian Carp. There has been no Asian Carp caught or seen over 40 miles from Chicago or above the electric barrier. We poisoned, netted, shocked the river but NO asian carp. Let's go kill them where we know they are instead of spending time and money searching for them where they are not.

Categories & Tags: Environment/Energy| | | | | | |