Just Build Something
[Guest post by DRJ]
Residents and officials of several states say President Obama is the only person who can order the federal government to build barriers that will stop outside invaders from harming their states. Illegal immigrants threatening the Southern border? Not hardly. Asian carp are invading the Great Lakes but the federal government says it will take years to decide whether to build stronger barriers to keep the carp out. The concern is the carp will drive out other fish and ruin the area fishing and sport-fishing industries. Michigan’s Attorney General is even considering legal action.
Who knew that when Barack Obama said he would bring Hope and Change, he meant lawsuits with and boycotting our 57 states?
— DRJ
I am sure these fish are just coming here to support families back home and do jobs Americans won’t do.
MunDane68 (54a83b) — 6/24/2010 @ 7:06 pmI believe B.O.’s original comment was something to the effect of: “I’ve campaigned in 57 states so far, so I’ve still got one to go.” So really that means he thought there were 58 states, not 57.
Of course, if you count the Obama’s White House’s current state of denial, that makes 59.
DubiousD (31dc7d) — 6/24/2010 @ 7:23 pmSo in other words, this is a case of something bad for us flowing in, and Obama positively obstructs any attempt to control the problem.
With three of these–immigration, the spill and now this–we officially have a trend.
Aaron Worthing (A.W.) (f97997) — 6/24/2010 @ 7:23 pmthey work so fast it makes you sick
it’s build
happyfeet (19c1da) — 6/24/2010 @ 7:33 pmEnvironmental regulation is choking our country for little to no benefit.
The EPA is trying to implement new, oppressive regulations in the event that someone spills milk.
Big government will save you from spilled milk … at the cost of destroying our economy.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/24/2010 @ 7:35 pmI’ve been following news bits about this for awhile. The issue is the fish have been migrating up the Mississippi basin for several years. (I think they mixed in with native fish/water during a period of flooding some years ago). They can get into Lake Michigan through the man made lock system at the canal in Chicago. In one corner are people who virtually guarantee that if the carp make it to the Great Lakes they will seriously disrupt the ecosystem by wiping out all the little critters at the bottom of the food chain, leaving nothing left for game fish such as salmon, trout, bass, walleye, etc., etc. The only way guaranteed to avoid this is to close the Chicago Canal to through shipping, or otherwise expensive modifications. This is a negative to people in Chicago who make money on shipping.
Others either say the fish aren’t that big a deal, or we don’t know for sure if they’re a big deal, or who cares if it’s a big deal, we want our shipping money and as for all the commerce around sport fishing in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio, etc., we don’t care about you and it will be years before the damage is done, so go fish!.
Now, one entire new industry that may come about if the fish do populate the Great Lakes will be great for the Trial Lawyers Association, “fish torts”. One of the species of Asian Carp has the nasty habit of jumping oput of the water in a panic when the noise of a motor boat comes by. Since these things can weigh up to 80 lbs, people can get seriously injured if one of these happens to flop in your face while you’re boating (don’t even begin to think about going skiing, ouch!!)
So, along with everything else going on, this is just one more thing to carp about.
nk, JD, any of you Illinois-Chicago folks have more to say?
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/24/2010 @ 7:52 pmComment by SPQR
That is reaching new levels of nonsense by any stretch of the imagination. Is concern over spilled milk a high enough priority to warrant a regulation???
Is this something one attributes to foolishness and incompetence, or are some things so stupid that the only way they would happen is because of malevolence????
People who have time to make up regulations like that need to be sent to some neglected area of the world with the Peace Corps or some such.
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/24/2010 @ 7:59 pmYou know more than me, MD in Philly. I remember the water level of the Mississippi dropped one foot maybe ten years ago and Cook County was declared a disaster area (barges could not navigate up). As you say, shipping is vital to Chicago’s economy.
nk (db4a41) — 6/24/2010 @ 8:10 pmThis is the inevitable result of 100 years of sophisticates and populists demanding that the government expand their bureaucracy to resolve the issues that communities used to handle on their own.
Now that we have a completely corrupt and dysfunctional bureaucracy, accountable to no one but themselves, an ineffectual, impotent chief executive at the head of it all, and a Congress that long ago abdicated its responsibility to respect the rule of law rather than treat it like a lever of patronage, we have communities that can’t even solve relatively simple issues like local ecosystem management.
Another Chris (121ff0) — 6/24/2010 @ 8:14 pmThey will decide this issue as quickly as they decided the berm issue in the Gulf.
Patricia (160852) — 6/24/2010 @ 8:17 pmWell, so long as they don’t ask the fish to show any identification.
They are just undocumented Piscian-Americans.
Eric Blair (02a138) — 6/24/2010 @ 8:39 pmComment by Eric Blair
Thanks for the chuckle, that was unexpectedly funny.
Opens another avenue of opportunity for lawyers and activists, because everyone knows that fish get profiled all of the time.
Maybe Canada will get upset and our relationship with another former ally will “go south”.
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/24/2010 @ 9:57 pmMD in Philly – The zebra mussels really had a positive effect on the water clarity in Lake Michigan in a pretty short order. Unfortunately they had some unanticipated side effects – I believe they filtered out a lot of the food for fish like perch nearer the bottom of the food chain so that fishery has been decimated. Who the heck knows what the carp would do in the big lake.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 6/24/2010 @ 10:10 pmMD,
I think there are plenty of YouTube videos of the leaping Asian Carp. They’re very, very dangerous when they’re spooked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb8OmEr7VqI
Xmas (dc5fbe) — 6/24/2010 @ 11:06 pm(I think they mixed in with native fish/water during a period of flooding some years ag).
They escaped from the MISS carp hatcheries during the flooding rains of the early 90’s, they started migrating up the Mississippi and finally made it to Lake Calumet a few years ago. My father – in – law fishes in the IL river (also infested), and he says that it’s virtually impossible to fish there now. The carp routinely jump and knock out boaters just minding their own business. They will decimate all of the Great Lakes fisheries if they’re allowed to spawn there – there is virtually nothing left to fish in the MISS and IL rivers at this point, and even if there was, it’s too dangerous to even try. While it will severely hurt the shipping interests here, there does not appear to be a viable alternative to prevention at present, other than to close the locks and route the shipping to off – loading trucks and trains.
I still don’t have an answer to why the Fish and Game department here doesn’t just poison the length of both rivers, and restock the hatcheries after the massive fishkills. Granted, it will be monstrously expensive, but at least it could prevent the shutdowns of the locks.
Dmac (cfe27e) — 6/25/2010 @ 8:22 amThis is a serious video about the problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLFe8xfgx24
There are some really painful looking ones out there.
Eric Blair (02a138) — 6/25/2010 @ 8:36 amObama must have been scared by a construction project when he was young; there’s no other reason to explain his continued hostility to building walls, berms, a better economy,…
rochf (ae9c58) — 6/25/2010 @ 8:47 amInvasive species can be quite serious, see what the Nile Perch has done in African lakes.
Unfortunately, there is often no real effective countermeasure.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/25/2010 @ 9:57 amComment by Eric Blair
Thanks for that informative link. And just think, that was a ten pounder, they get up to 80.
I’m surprised the situation has grwon to this size without ever hearing about it. Looking at the map of where they are is pretty scary.
As a serious suggestion, not sure where to send it, I wonder if the water conditions, temp, etc. these things grow in overlap conditions for Tiger Muskies, which are a sterile hybrid of Muskies and Northern Pike that are typically the largest predator in a food chain, ngetting at least 4 feet long. I wonder if a concentrated stocking effort at the boundary of where the carp are would be effective in controlling the carp as well as giving some incredible sport fishing.
Dmac, when you have the chance pass the idea by your father-in-law.
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/25/2010 @ 2:05 pmAlways thought that they should just let skeet shooters go after them. Put a shooter in the bow of a boat and run upstream and pop them as they jump. Promote it as a sport and stand back. I mean if competitive bass fishing can make it this should also.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 6/25/2010 @ 2:18 pm