There’s bad news from the front lines in the battle to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. Agencies which have been monitoring the area around the so-called “carp barrier” in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal say environmental DNA samples indicate that the invasive Silver and Bighead carp have breached the barrier. But Cameron Davis with the federal Environmental Protection Agency insists that does not mean the carp will enter Lake Michigan. “This is not a foregone conclusion,” Davis said during a media conference call on Friday. Davis called the eDNA sampling is “the best we have . . . we believe it’s very accurate.”
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While Davis said no actual fish have been found beyond the barrier yet, Dr. David Lodge, the University of Notre Dame scientist who’s conducting the testing, said it’s likely the invasive carp have in fact bypassed the barrier. “There is no reason to think that their aren’t carp present when the DNA is detected,” said Lodge. [click to continue…]
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