Last week, the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee released its strategy to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp. Among its protective measures, the committee plans to step up monitoring and commercial fishing operations, including increased water sampling downstream of electric fish barriers and testing the effects of seismic pressure waves to scare away carp, according to a recent Associated Press article.
Another monitoring technique, called Environmental DNA (eDNA), searches the Great lakes for evidence of Asian carp that are sparsely spread. eDNA can test the waters in which a fish has left some particles from its scales.
According to another article published by The Center for Michigan, dozens of eDNA samples already have shown the presence of Asian carp in streams leading to the Great lakes.
For updates on the Asian Carp issue, visit michigan.gov/dnr.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District
