Here's Why You Should Care About Asian Carp In Ohio

EUCLID, OH — Over the past few years, several Ohio politicians have taken aim at an invasive fish species called Asian carp. Now, two Democratic state representatives, Kent Smith, from Euclid, and John Rogers, from Mentor-on-the-Lake, want to boost funding for programs that would stop the fish species from entering the Great Lakes.

“We will either stop Asian carp at the Brandon Road Lock [in Illinois], or we will wish we did,” said Smith in a press release. “Our Great Lakes and billions of dollars in economic activity hang in the balance. The longer we wait, the greater the threat of an ecosystem catastrophe.”

Why the panic over a fish? Why do so many politicians care about this issue? What can be done? Let's break it down into bullet points.

1. Asian carp will damage the "ecosystem" of Lake Erie. Carp have been around in the U.S. for more than a 100 years, but they're actually native to Europe and Asia. The Asian carp, though, is a particularly aggressive member of the family and will out-compete other fish for food, driving off or killing native fish. They can do so much damage that they'll effectively be the only fish species left swimming in a given body of water. The could, hypothetically, end up driving out, the native walleye in Lake Erie.
2. Let them damage the Lake Erie ecosystem and it could cost $7 billion. Asian carp are currently being kept out of the Great Lakes, but the species has gotten closer and closer to entering those bodies of water. Should they manage to get entry and take over, it could cost cities like Cleveland and Chicago a pretty penny. That's because the Great Lakes region brings in $7 billion annually for sport fishing and $16 billion via the recreational boating industry.
3. Wait...how could Asian carp damage the recreational boating industry? Silver carp (a member of the Asian carp family) have been known to hurl themselves out of the water at high speeds, hitting boaters and breaking boating equipment, the National Park Services said. It's not a joke, even if it sounds a little funny. Asian carp can get to be 31 pounds and between 16 and 31 inches. Imagine that flying toward your face.
4. What is being done to stop the spread of the Asian carp? The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) maintains a river-based electric barrier that is designed to stymie the spread of the fish. But in June 2017, an Asian carp was found just nine miles from Lake Michigan. That was when politicians discovered GLMRIS.
5. GLMRIS? The Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study was a report that discussed a myriad of options to stop the spread of Asian carp. There was a brief political struggle after the report was discovered, because USACE refused to release it. The Corps was under political pressure, it's believed, because the Trump administration wanted to gut Great Lakes Restoration funding, not dump more money in.

Which brings us to March 2018. Smith and Rogers announced they were introducing legislation that urged the U.S. Congress to fund USACE's efforts against Asian carp, specifically the implementation of new technology at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Joliet, Illinois (not far from where the carp was found in June 2017).

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have lobbied Congress for similar funding — including Republican candidate for governor and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Lorain-area Democrat and the longest serving woman in U.S. House history.

It's easy to see why this is a bipartisan issue. Lake Erie is important to the state's economy. Really important.

"In Ohio alone, Lake Erie is a vital economic engine - creating 100,000 tourism related jobs in Northern Ohio,” Rogers said. “As one of our nation’s greatest freshwater water resources, the lake not only provides drinking water for 3 million Ohioans, it is also responsible for generating $750 million in state and local taxes, attracting 1.5 million hunters and anglers who alone spend $2 billion in Ohio. If we fail as a nation to address this growing threat, the damage caused by this invasive species will be irreversible.”

Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch