Intensive fishing campaign finds no Asian carp near Chicago

A six week long campaign of electro-fishing and netting along Chicago area rivers and canals has not turned up a single Asian carp, AP reports.

The Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers began searching for the invasive fish around warm water outflows back in February as part of a an effort to reduce the risk that the fish will migrate into the Great Lakes where they could damage a multi-billion dollar sport fishing industry. As ice receded from the river system the agencies searched broad areas of the rivers around Chicago.

Last December DNA from Asian Carp was detected beyond an electrical barrier designed to keep them from Lake Michigan.

The operation yielded more than 1,000 common carp, a similar number of gizzard shad and a few other varieties but no silver or bighead carp — natives of Asia that have infested sections of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers plus the Chicago waterways south of the electric barrier, some 25 miles from Lake Michigan.

Attorney General Mike Cox has made two unsuccessful requests to the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency injunction to close the locks that connect some of the Chicago area waterways to Lake Michigan.

John Sellek, a spokesman for Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, said Monday that although no Asian carp were found, Michigan still wants the locks closed.

“What did they expect? (Illinois’) own court filings say they are not likely to catch Asian carp using nets or electro-fishing,” Sellek said.