Climate ChangeLandscape Conservation CooperativesGreat Lakes Restoration Initiative |
March 21, 2011 Contact: Lake Calumet, IL - A fisheries biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources holds a Bighead carp caught in Lake Calumet. The fish was caught during routine sampling efforts by the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee on June 22, 2010. Photo Credit: The bighead found in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in December 2009 Photo Credit: Bighead Carp Added to Federal List of Injurious Wildlife Under the Lacey Act, an injurious wildlife listing means the species has been demonstrated to be harmful to either the health and welfare of humans, interests of forestry, agriculture, or horticulture, or the welfare and survival of wildlife or the resources that wildlife depend upon. The penalty for violating the Lacey Act is up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine for an individual or a $10,000 fine for an organization. Curbing interstate transport of live bighead carp promotes the federal government's goal of preventing the carp's spread into new lakes and rivers in the United States, where it can have devastating effects on native species. The Service listed other Asian carps (the black carp, silver carp, and largescale silver carp) as injurious wildlife in 2007. Bighead carp were imported from eastern China to Arkansas in the 1970s to improve water quality in aquaculture ponds and sewage treatment lagoons. The fish, which can grow to 60 or more pounds, have since spread through the Mississippi River basin and have been collected as far north as Lake Pepin in Minnesota. Because of their large size and abundance, bighead carp routinely out-compete native fish for food. If bighead carp enter the Great Lakes and become established, they potentially threaten the 1.5 million jobs and $62 billion in wages connected to the Great Lakes. The bighead carp injurious wildlife listing is just one of many steps the federal government is taking to protect the country's aquatic ecosystems from Asian carp. On December 16, 2010, the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (RCC) released an updated version of the Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework. The RCC represents a state and federal partnership dedicated to stopping the spread of all types of injurious Asian carp, including bighead, into the Great Lakes. For more information on how the Service is working with partners to control Asian carp, please visit http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Fisheries/asian-carp.html. -FWS-
For more information on Asian carp and the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee, please visit AsianCarp.org. Media Contacts | Reporters Tip Sheet | Just Escape | Accomplishment Reporting | Inside Region 3
|
Last updated: June 3, 2011
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
612-713-5360
E-mail: MidwestNews@fws.gov