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Great Lakes
Article:
Carp barrier federal funding is rejected
newkerala.com
Posted November 11, 2005
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 : A $9 million electric barrier has
been built to keep Asian carp from infesting Lake Michigan,
but Congress is reportedly refusing to pay to turn it
on.
A House-Senate conference committee this week refused
to provide the estimated $250,000 needed for the barrier's
operation along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The panel, however, did agree to fund a controversial
study to improve the aged St. Lawrence Seaway, another
pathway for foreign species to invade the Great Lakes,
the newspaper said.
The carp can grow up to 100 pounds and consume 40 percent
of their body weight a day in plankton, a food source
on which other Great Lakes fish species directly or indirectly
depend.
Federal barrier operation and maintenance might still
come via two other pending bills, one of which -- the
National Aquatic Invasive Species Act -- has been stalled
for three years, the newspaper said.
The Great Lakes are now home to more than 180 invasive
species, and a new one is discovered, on average, every
six and a half months.
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