Traverse City Record-Eagle

Opinion

EDITORIAL

The issue: Proof of Asian carp verified

Our view: Money still talks

January 6, 2011

Science takes a backseat in the Asian carp debate

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It has become abundantly clear that until some kid with a fishing pole can stand on a breakwater in Frankfort and haul in a 100-pound Asian carp (or maybe get hauled in himself) the federal government will continue to deny the big fish have gotten into Lake Michigan.

That may be a bit of an exaggeration — they might cede the claim if some guy in a rowboat off Chicago hauls one in first — but the point is the same: Money trumps everything, including common sense, appeals to protect the environment, expert opinion and, of course, science.

So far, the money that has done all the trumping is from the firms that haul freight through the system of Chicago-area rivers and canals that link Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. There also are commercial-fishing interests involved.

Their lawyers to date have been able to stymie numerous attempts (largely in Chicago-area courts) by other Great Lakes states to sever all physical connections between Mississippi tributaries and Lake Michigan to prevent the spread of the dreaded carp.

Scientists whose genetics-based research helped make the case that the voracious carp already have entered Lake Michigan said this week their work has been validated and published in a peer-reviewed journal. Lawyers for freight haulers and even a judge in previous hearings had questioned the team's findings.

That's not to say, of course, that validation of the proof will make a whit of difference. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers already has said it could take as long as five years to determine what should be done; by that time, if the scientists, environmentalists and fishermen who warn that carp are here or will soon be in the lake are right, it will be too late to matter.

For those who haven't been paying attention, the Asian or silver carp was brought to the United States back in 1963 to control underwater vegetation in aquaculture ponds in the South. Some quickly escaped; since then they have spread to 45 states.

The concern is that the carp, which can weigh in at 100 pounds and more, will quickly starve out competitors for the plankton that is at the heart of the Lake Michigan food chain. If that chain collapses, the experts say, so could the Great Lakes' $7 billion-a-year sport-fishing industry.

Don't expect the validation of the science to make any difference. As an attorney for industry groups opposed to closing Chicago-area locks said, "Just because the data is published in a peer-reviewed journal doesn't make it gospel."

And gospel, apparently — or at least an intervention from on high — is what it's going to take to get past the cash and do what's best for the lakes.

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