The devil has fins
The Ottawa CitizenFebruary 8, 2010
The clearest win-or-lose environmental battle in Eastern Canada is the need to kill some fish in a hurry, and to keep any survivors out of this country.
The Asian bighead carp is at the north end of the Illinois River, near Chicago, and it's knocking on Canada's door. It's a foreigner we don't want. A 100-pound fish -- or 45 kilos, to be proper about it -- would be an eerie thing to meet on a casual swim in the Rideau or Ottawa Rivers. That's one big fish, about the same weight as a female Bernese mountain dog, considerably bigger than a German shepherd. Biologist Linda Campbell of Queen's University has found them a metre long in China.
If swimming with these invasive carp species sounds unnerving, having them jump out of the water whenever a motor boat goes past would be positively creepy, and dangerous. That's what a second invasive Asian species, silver carp, does when a motor comes close. In infested water, a boat or water skier sends them leaping right and left -- sometimes into the boat -- like cockroaches scuttling away from light.
These fish have spread through the Mississippi and Missouri watersheds to Chicago, just a short canal away from invading Lake Michigan.
If they get into Lake Michigan, it's an easy trip through all five Great Lakes, and throughout the entire Rideau system and the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers. Keeping them penned in Lake Michigan is about as realistic as keeping mosquitoes at the far end of your back yard.
These carp spell catastrophe because they kill off other fish species by destroying spawning areas and out-competing them for food. They have no natural enemies in North America. So far, an improvised electrified barrier has kept carp from moving through the canal into Lake Michigan, but this isn't enough for the long term.
Experts differ somewhat on whether the carp will wipe out native fish or simply make them more scarce, but everyone agrees it will inflict terrible damage on commercial and sport fishing industries worth a combined $7 billion a year. Trout, bass and perch belong in these waters. Bighead carp don't.
So why is Canada so quiet? It's true that Fisheries and Oceans Canada sent 19 staff and boats to help Americans in a one-time chemical attack on carp that came too close to the barrier near Lake Michigan, but the Canadian government needs to be more public about the issue.
Today in Washington, the White House is hosting a domestic summit to look for better long-term ways to stop the carp, such as closing the channel. Canada isn't invited, but we should still use the occasion to speak our minds while this topic holds Americans' attention.
Ontario has already joined Michigan in a U.S. Supreme Court battle to close the canal, sealing it off from the Great Lakes. Now the Harper government needs to tell Washington this is an urgent priority. Today's summit provides an excellent opportunity.
Some environmental goals are vague and flexible. This one's clear-cut. These rapacious fish get in, or they don't. Success or failure. Canada is a land of lakes and rivers, and we need to win this one.
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