Asian Carp DNA found in Lake Michigan
 

http://www.prairiestateoutdoors.com/...lake_michigan/

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP)—A federal official says DNA from Asian carp has been detected in Lake Michigan for the first time—but it’s still not certain whether the fish themselves have entered the lake.
Gen. John Peabody of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says one sample of genetic material from the invasive carp has been found in Calumet Harbor, which is part of Lake Michigan.

:confused0024:

OK......that almost makes sense......


NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

Bummer, eh? But it is still important to keep sight of the fact that the GAME is NOT OVER. It might take a LOT of fish introduced into Lake Michigan to result in an established population. And it is possible that even a very large number of fish introduced would not reproduce there, although I think that is unlikely. Mainly, keeping the number of fish that get through into the Great Lakes is still very important. It is not time to give up and drop the barrier.

The most likely explanation of the finding of eDNA is a fish out there - but there is still a possibility that it is not a live fish. Any number of crackpots out there that could dump a carcass and cause this hullabaloo.

Duane, can a tow boat or barge dumping it's ballast water release the DNA? (I kind of remember them having new rules for tow boats and barges)

I hope to god they don't do what the zebra mussels have...

Well, the DNA is loose in the water, from sluffed off cells of the fish, especially from within the digestive tract of the fish. River water is a soup of fish DNA, it seems, and all kinds of other DNA. But we can take a sample of only a few liters, filter it out, and test for genetic barcodes specific to an individual species, once you have generated and identified those barcodes. In theory, ballast water could be taken on downstream, transported upstream, and released, in effect transferring the DNA with it. But there is VERY LITTLE ballasting going on in the barges and tows, even before the new regs. There are some barges that leak pretty darn bad, and conceivably those could move some dna. But overall, the pattern of hits does not seem like they are likely to be the result of anything but actual fish. Any one particular sample could be an anomaly that results from something other than a fish, but multiple hits in the observed pattern - doubt it. But remember that any SINGLE hit, like the one in the Lake, is more suspect than the project as a whole. There are lunatics out there that might even be throwing dead fish or fish guts around. This would not probably provide the pattern we have observed, but any single hit could be an anomaly that is not a fish. And remember that we have NO idea how to interpret these data into numbers of fish.

Thanks Duane. I was trying to be optimistic. :)

Hopefully it was just a dead fish that fell off a boat. Maybe.

I hate to say it, buit I think we are delaying the inevitable. We might as well toss them into Lake Michigan right now and get it over with. I don't know how they get around dams, but they do.

Maybe it will be ducks transporting eggs on their feet or some a**hole chucking a few into the lake 'for kicks' but they will make it. The barbarians are at the door...

Judd the Optimist

The other way is when people seine some Asian minnows or mistaken shad below the dams and then use them up on the lake for bait and then of course what do most fishermen do when they finish for the day? they release their bait back in the water. We found some good ole boys doing just that down below Rend Lake and couldn't quite explain why those shad had those "upside down eyes" :D

I met the Director for the Cook County Forest Preserves and chatted with him about the Asian Carp problem. He was one of the guys who helped with the 'fish kill' in the Fall. He told me that bighead carp are already in Lake Erie but are not thriving. He said the plankton was more abundant in Lake Erie compared to Lake Michigan. On that basis, he didn't seem to think the Asain Carp would fare very well in Lake Michigan.