Governor Gretchen Whitmer is expected to send a letter, signed by the other Great Lakes governors, to the federal government requesting more funding to help stop the spread of asian carp.
Over the past forty years the invasive fish has made its way up the Mississippi River. Now one of the last lines of defense is the Brandon Road Dam and Lock in Joliet, Illinois.
If the carp make it past the lock system, the can spread across the Great Lakes quickly and ravage the ecosystem, as they eat food stores for other fish rapidly and also procreate at a high rate.
“It takes as few as 10 males and 10 females in a particular river to establish a population, so that’s not very many,” said Marc Gaden of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, “That means that any work that is done in the Chicago Area Waterway System has to be pretty darn complete. To keep these fish from getting in because it only takes a few to establish a population.”
Asian carp are known to be about 20 miles downstream from Brandon Road Lock and Dam, which is then 30 miles from Lake Michigan.
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