[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11484-11485]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    ASIAN CARP FOUND IN LAKE CALUMET

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today with a very urgent and 
critical situation from my home State and the home State of the 
Presiding Officer and for our Great Lakes in general.
  We are just finding out today that a commercial fisherman, contracted 
by the government to do routine sampling of areas leading into the 
Great Lakes and Lake Michigan, caught a 34-inch, 20-pound Asian carp in 
Lake Calumet, approximately 6 miles downstream from Lake Michigan, past 
the barriers, and on its way to Lake Michigan. This is the first Asian 
carp found past the electric barriers. It represents a very serious 
risk to the Great Lakes' ecosystem and, frankly, to our way of life in 
the Great Lakes region. These fish are huge, and they are able to 
invade the Great Lakes. They could easily destroy our $7 billion 
fishing industry and our $16 billion recreational boating industry. 
Invasive species in the Great Lakes have already contributed to 
significant declines in fish populations. The Asian carp could 
completely unwind the food chain, with devastating effects for our 
existing fish populations. We heard in testimony before my Subcommittee 
on Water and Power that these fish, which can get up to 90 or 100 
pounds, effectively have no stomach. They eat all the time. They eat up 
everything in the food chain, leaving other fish to die throughout the 
Great Lakes. It is extremely serious.
  We have been working on this issue for a number of years with 
electric fencing and most recently poisoning a part of the waters in 
the Chicago channels to determine whether there are any of these Asian 
carp that have come up the Mississippi River and into the Illinois 
River. At the time, they didn't find anything. Unfortunately, today 
they did, and it was well past the electric barriers and fences for the 
first time.
  Let me share with you one story from a few years ago that reflects 
what happens if these huge fish get into our precious Great Lakes. In 
2003, a woman named Mary Poplett, from Peoria, IL, decided to enjoy 
some warm October weather with a little jet skiing on the Illinois 
River. As she cruised the waves, the sound of her ski's motor excited a 
30-pound Asian carp swimming under the water, which then leapt up and 
crashed into her. Imagine being hit in the face by a bowling ball. That 
is how she referred to it. She was knocked unconscious. She broke her 
nose, fractured a vertebrae, and she would have drowned if other 
boaters in the area had not gotten to her in time. Imagine that. 
Imagine that happening over and over again in Lake Michigan, in Lake 
Superior, and around our Great Lakes. I can't imagine it. I don't want 
to imagine it.
  Mary is not alone. Since Asian carp were introduced to control algae 
in catfish ponds down South in the 1970s, the carp have spread at a 
very rapid pace, causing injuries, destroying ecosystems, and 
threatening entire industries. Now that an Asian carp has been found so 
close to Lake Michigan, it better be a huge wake-up call that we have 
to act swiftly to contain this threat.
  Despite everyone's best efforts, this situation we find ourselves in 
is calling for very decisive action. I have introduced legislation to 
close the locks until we have a permanent solution. This has also been 
introduced in the House by my colleague, Congressman Camp, and others, 
and I today urge in the strongest possible terms that the Army Corps 
close the locks between the rivers and Lake Michigan now--now, today--
while they continue to determine the best way to permanently separate 
the Chicago area waterway system from the Great Lakes.
  We know we need additional monitoring and sampling of resources 
applied to the area. I appreciate that last December, when there was 
fish DNA found above the locks, the administration worked with us very 
quickly to redirect resources to the Army Corps to take some immediate 
actions at that time. But now it is not just DNA from a dead fish. Now 
it is a live fish, and it is beyond the electric barrier. It is on its 
way in open waters into our Great Lakes, and we have to act decisively 
and immediately to protect our waters while a long-term solution is 
found.
  Again, I urge the Army Corps of Engineers and the other agencies 
involved to take this finding very seriously and to act with the same 
tremendous urgency that all of us who represent Great Lakes States feel 
to prevent further encroachment by these Asian carp into our Great 
Lakes. This isn't just the economy, it is not just boating, and it is 
not just fishing; it really is our way of life in the Great Lakes. 
Despite efforts that have gone on for years to stop the fish, that 
hasn't happened, and now we have to take very decisive action to close 
the locks immediately so we can determine how best, in the long term, 
to solve this problem.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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