Spiel

NVCA Species at Risk workshop on Lake Sturgeon Join the NVCA to learn more about Lake Sturgeon in the Nottawasaga Valley watershed. Our biologists will discuss this species' characteristics, life history, current species status and management practices, plus what you can do to help protect this fish in our watershed. This FREE workshop takes place on Wednesday, November 25th from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Essa Township Administration Centre. For more details and to RSVP Click here

Dye tracer testing may turn Grand River red in Brant, Six Nations November 09, 2009 / www.grandriver.ca During the last two weeks of November, officials from the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA), in partnership with the Six Nations of the Grand River Public Works Department (Water / Sewage Division), will place a safe, environmentally-friendly, “fluorescing” dye into the Grand River near Brantford and Newport, and Fairchild Creek near Cainsville, temporarily giving these watercourse systems a red tint. The study is part of a Ministry of the Environment-funded program to assess the vulnerability of municipal drinking water supplies. The undertaking is known as a "dye tracer test" – a common way to determine travel time in watercourses for the protection of the water supply intake. The tests will involve injecting the dye at three locations over one to two days and the measurement of travel time and dye dilution at downstream locations. The test may appear to turn the watercourses red temporarily where the dye is placed. It will dilute quickly as it moves downstream, eventually becoming invisible. The dye tracer test is one component of a series of water supply source protection studies the GRCA is conducting with Six Nations in support of the Ontario Clean Water Act. For more please contact: Frank Montour, Acting Director of Public Works, Six Nations, 519-445-4242 James Etienne, Senior Water Resources Engineer, GRCA, 519-621-2763 x 2298 Scott Robertson, P.Eng., Water Resources Engineer, Stantec Consulting Ltd., 519-585-7297

You are refering to just the minnows.....right. (j/k) I'd say with your outlook on the whole situation Simon that you'll come out of this, on top!

Your posts never fail to impress me Al but then again I'm a sucker for anything Brookies.

Hmmmmm, 90+ uh, sunburn uh, tough break Garry. Over the sound of my typing is the sound of the furnace running, brrrrr.

That is good news. Thank you.

It's hard to say what costs would be for this type of work. Variables can be extensive in time needed to remove the old handle, whether or not it can be done from the back or whether the guides will have to be removed. Cork costs are through the roof and can run upwards of several dollars per inch. Then of course fitting, glueing and lathing the grips followed by instalation on the now cleaned up blank...... Then of course you can add custom cork burls to pimp it out, I could go on. Pre fab handles are definitely cheaper but quality is not as great and of course you lose out on uniqueness. Wood seats also vary in price depending on many factors but will typically run 2 to 3 times more than conventional seats. Bottom line is if you want quality components and quality work it's gonna cost.

Shoring up walleye stocks is daunting task November 10, 2009 Steve Pollick / toledoblade.com When it comes to shoring up Lake Erie's highly valued walleye stocks, which currently are foundering as badly as the world economy, the elusive search is on for magic bullets. Fisheries biologists and managers have looked at most if not all of the proposals - many are resurrected whenever walleye stocks cycle downward, as now - and they would be only too glad to adopt them if they made science sense. Stocking hatchery-reared walleye in the lake is one such example. Jeff Tyson, Lake Erie fisheries research supervisor for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, noted that it would take a stock of 224 million walleye fingerlings to produce an average size year-class of 10 million age two fish. That is 32 times the capacity of Ohio's walleye hatcheries, and it would take 72,800 mature female walleye to produce such a supply of eggs, only half of which survive to hatching. Tyson said that state electroshocking crews in the Maumee and Sandusky rivers in the spring only manage to capture about 4,000 walleye, and of them only 800 are females. That is tens of thousands of fish short of what would be needed and illustrates the daunting scope of the numbers alone needed to stock a lake the size of Erie- more than 6.3 million acres. Dumping hatchery fingerlings into the lake, moreover, could dilute and even endanger the highly evolved genetics, including homing and timing instincts, of the various reef and river stocks. Another major campaign has taken aim at First Energy's Bay Shore Power Plant, located where the Maumee River empties into Maumee Bay. Bay Shore's cooling-water intake annually entrains millions upon millions of walleye fry, and that has been a big bone of contention. A move toward best management practices - such as reducing the intake during spawning runs - is desirable. (Note that even year-old and 2- year-old fish, the latter 15-inchers entering the fishing stock, easily can swim out of the intake channel and avoid destruction.) But even if you could shut down the plant completely during the spring spawning run up the Maumee River, which is not likely, there is no guarantee it would allow for consistently good year-classes from the Maumee River stock, noted Tyson. "We've always got the weather trump-card." Good weather, good hatch; bad weather, bad hatch. It is that simple, or that difficult. It would be hard to make a case against Bay Shore in court, which is where any spawning shutdown debate ultimately would reside. The fact is, the plant has been in operation more than 50 years - right through the walleye boom of the 1980s, and ultimately state fisheries managers would have to justify to a judge just how that boom could have occurred if Bay Shore is wrecking walleye stocks. It can be argued that if millions of fry succumb annually at Bay Shore, billions more succumb to natural causes at large on the lake. Another contentious issue is the dumping of Maumee Ship Channel dredgings in the open waters of the outer bay. The Maumee River watershed produces more silt - from erosion of farmland and urban runoff - than all the rest of the rivers on the Great Lakes, combined. But Tyson notes that such dumping already is restricted until after July 1, long after any spawning and hatching may occur in the bay. Too, a strong, prolonged northeaster will kick up the shallow western basin's south shore and turn the water-column to "mud," creating a built-in siltation problem irrespective of ship channel maintenance. The same argument about Bay Shore - that it was on-line before and during the walleye boom - applies to the dredging issue, however desirable it may be to eliminate as much additional siltation as possible. Which leaves, among major suggestions, the question of closure of fishing during spring spawning. To which Tyson replies: "We've done a lot of research in the rivers and on the reefs, and what it indicates is that closure, within the range of populations seen on Lake Erie, does not have an impact on year-class strength." The biologist noted that only four percent of the annual sport catch occurs in March and April, and that is not significant enough to affect the adult walleye stock. Most of the annual sport-catch occurs May through July on the lake, and a female fish removed in May or June is just as unavailable next spring as one caught in March or April. Nonetheless, Jack Tibbels, who owns Tibbels Marina at Marblehead, is pushing for a spring closure on walleye fishing. He has been circulating letters to the editor in local and county newspapers, stating his case. "This is my solution to preserve a great industry for the future," Tibbels says in part. "I have 55 years experience as a fishing charter captain and commercial fisherman. I have seen walleye fishing go from catching 100 walleye daily, to no walleye, to plentiful, to current lows heading for depletion. Without protecting the spawning of walleye, [smallmouth] bass, and [yellow] perch, we can only expect declining fish populations." Tibbels runs party boats, which charge $37 a head for fishing, and he also runs standard "six-pack" charters which take up to six anglers for about $600. He operates a fully equipped marina. "I'll survive," he said. But, "what we've done in the past hasn't worked. I'm willing to sacrifice business in that early season." Predictably, his position finds little favor overall among charter skippers, who see the spring jig-and-minnow fishery as their make-or-break time for the year. That is because - again, weather permitting - the fish are in close so the boat-runs are short and fuel bills are lower. The fishing can be fast, and some skippers can cram two, even three trips into a single day. They claim that offsets their costs of long, time-consuming runs for less cooperative fish come midsummer. "We're very concerned," says Rick Unger, president of the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association, about the depressed walleye stocks. LECBA has 200 members and with affiliates represents most of the 800 captains in Ohio waters of the lake. But Unger said that LECBA does not support spring closure. "We stand behind the division of wildlife and their science," stated Unger. "Their science says shutting the spring fishing would not improve the hatch. The hatch is weather driven. They can't make the weather."

Professors find clue to dead zone in lake Study says algae deplete the oxygen November 10, 2009 TOM HENRY / toledoblade.com For decades if not centuries, a portion of Lake Erie's central basin has been so depleted of oxygen that it has not supported life. Two Bowling Green State University researchers believe they have uncovered cold-weather diatoms, or microscopic pieces, of algae that contribute to the lake's infamous dead zone. The research that Michael McKay and George Bullerjahn have done into Aulacoseira islandica (pronounced All-LE-sa-SY-ruh Eye-LAND-icka) is not likely to solve the dead zone's mystery. But they said it could explain one of the many factors behind it. Mr. McKay and Mr. Bullerjahn, both professors of biological sciences, said they first noticed the diatoms of algae in brownish pockets floating under Lake Erie ice in February, 2007, while they were aboard a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker. The tiny bits of algae made up 80 to 90 percent of some collected samples, Mr. McKay said. Unlike microcystis, a toxic, free-floating algae that has blanketed the lake's western basin between Monroe and Sandusky almost annually each summer since 1996, Aulacoseira islandica isn't harmful. It's just hardy. It thrives in cold water while most other types of algae dissipate. The diatoms sink to the lake bottom as the water temperature rises in late winter and early spring, Mr. McKay said. They form a large source of carbon for bacteria to decompose, which consumes oxygen. "When they sink and die, that's when we have the oxygen depletion occurring," Mr. McKay said. Mr. Bullerjahn agreed. "This is a cold adapted algae. It's pretty much gone when spring comes," he said. "It's likely contributing to the dead zone." Lake Erie's dead zone is known to shift locations from year to year, varying in size and shape. One day, it may be found in the lake's midpoint, northeast of Cleveland. Then, before long, in another locale. It is almost always within the central basin. Limnologists - scientists who specialize in lake research - have said at least some of it is likely the result of Lake Erie's physical attributes. The lake's three basins vary greatly in depth, from the shallowness of western Lake Erie to the large drop-off near Buffalo. Consequently, water recirculates differently in each basin. "The jury's still out on what is causing the dead zone. I'm of the belief there are multiple factors," Mr. McKay said. Although Aulacoseira islandica is one of many naturally occurring forms of algae, it is like others in that it depends on a steady diet of phosphorus and nitrogen. Both are land-based fertilizers and waste products that trickle into lake tributaries after heavy rain. The algae may thrive in spite of pollution controls because of how zebra mussels have changed the lake biology. Native forms of algae, most of which the public never sees, are "not as abundant in the past as they have been since zebra mussels invaded," Mr. McKay said. "The zebra mussels created some conditions in the water chemistry that might have allowed this species [of algae] to emerge as a dominant type," he said. The professors' research has been funded for at least the next two years. By better understanding how the lake functions during the winter, scientists will be able to make better predictions about its future. "This helps complete our predictions about carbon functions in the lake," Mr. Bullerjahn said. "If you don't know what the lake's doing on its own, it's hard to target it for protection."

If only I had known Wayne. I certainly would have captured a few photos.

Due to the overwhelming negativity of the replies I wasn't going to view the clip and now all I can say is why, why did I do it? I may never forgive you for this Craig.

I was outside this morning at 10:30 to rake up the leaves (again) when at 10:45 sharp I heard a loud roar to the east. Unmistakebly the Lancaster! As I averted my eyes skyward I was treated to an oustanding and impressive sight as the Lancaster flew by at a mere few hundred feet directly over my head. Flanking it on the right was the B-25 Mitchell and on it's left a C-130 transport. The roar of these awesome planes sent shivers down my spine. They were quickly followed by another three plane formation from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, one of which I recognised as the Harvard. Then promptly followed by a PBY-5A. For me it was a poignant reminder of how very fortunate we are to have had so many give so much for the rights and freedoms we enjoy today. As I stood in silence 15 minutes later I was truly humbled!

LOl....Don't worry TJ, I've no doubt he'll always look up to you.

Good stuff boys. Nice to see father and son get some quality time together. A got to ask though TJ, is Avery growing like a weed or are you standing in a hole?

Sure it can be done, I could even do it, done it many times but you wouldn't like the cost. Personally I think you have a better handle now then the one you're wanting.

Come on folks, Joey deserves better than a 24th place showing.

I think the general concensus here would be for you to see a Doctor. Nuff said.

I'm glad you found it to be useful.

LMAO....is that how it was for you Pete?

Best wishes to you Bruce, I hope it all goes well and smoothly.

Smelt population explodes in Lake Huron Trend bodes well for diet of game fish species November 4, 2009 Jim Moodie / manitoulin.ca ANN ARBOR, Mich.-Nature, it has been remarked, abhors a vacuum, and that certainly seems to be the case with Lake Huron's endlessly repopulated depths. Alewives, once plentiful in the lake, are now practically gone, while other types of fish-both invasive and native, small and big-seem to be thriving, for better or worse, in their stead. As always, with a system of this size and complexity, where gains in the indigenous fishery are often undercut by the latest new foreign threat-or new pressures wrought by commercial and recreational activities-the picture is mixed. But generally, things look fairly promising for our Sweetwater Sea, judging by the impressions of a research crew that performed a recent checkup on the lake's finny fettle. Earlier this fall, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) vessel The Sturgeon made its annual sweep of Lake Huron, in order to gauge densities of various species via acoustic sounding and mid-level trawls. And while the numbers remain to be crunched, there were some intriguing initial finds. "I can only offer preliminary observations, pending analysis, but one thing we saw was a very large hatch of smelt," said Jeff Schaeffer, a research fishery biologist with the Great Lakes Science Centre in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "They were ubiquitous." Alewives, by contrast, were next to non-existent. "We caught maybe four or five," he remarked. "At the same trawl site, there would be 750 to 1,000 smelt." The 105-foot ship, with a crew of six aboard, spent 30 days visiting "all three basins of Huron for a lake-wide survey," said Mr. Schaeffer. This included "23 transects or sampling stations" that spanned the main part of the lake, Georgian Bay, and the North Channel. While alewives-an invasive type of herring, apparently named for their potbellies-formed a significant part of the diet for salmon, researchers aren't really ruing their decline. Nor are they too concerned about the surge in rainbow smelts, even though this is also a non-indigenous species. "I'm not completely unhappy about it," said Mr. Schaeffer. "As an invader, smelt are less of a problem than alewives." The biggest smelt boom was observed in the main basin of Lake Huron, said the biologist, although the North Channel had "a lot there, too." The more striking development in the North Channel was probably the presence of a different little import. "We noticed a lot of three-spined stickleback," said Mr. Schaeffer. "It's not indigenous to the upper lakes, but it's been around a long time in low numbers." In the past couple of years, the population of this spiky species-which really does sport a trio of dorsal spines, plus bony plates on its flanks-has grown quite rapidly, he said. (Hardcore fish appreciators might be interested to learn that, according to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, "its caudal peduncle may be keeled or it may not." Or not.) As unappetizing as they sound, these crunchy critters are apparently being gobbled up quite readily by bigger fish. "Predators are eating them," said the researcher. "Canadian biologists have noticed this in the stomachs of trout and salmon." A separate analysis of sport fish on the US side of Lake Huron has shown that another invasive species is becoming more commonly ingested. "We did a new study this year where we looked at 2,000 stomachs of salmon, trout and walleye caught by anglers, and found that many of the fish are consuming round gobies," said Mr. Schaeffer. "Walleye and trout, in particular, are feeding heavily on gobies." While baitfish seemed plentiful in the North Channel last fall, when The Sturgeon conducted its previous swing through these parts, by the spring and summer of this year, numbers were generally low across all three basins of Lake Huron. Predators like trout and walleye "apparently responded by eating gobies," said Mr. Schaeffer. The bounteous hatch of smelt this year theoretically bodes well as a future food source for these bigger swimmers-not to mention an enticing catch for net-wielding sports types-"but they're still very small fish, the question we still have is whether they will survive," noted Mr. Schaeffer. At six months old, the baby smelts "are about as long as a little finger and weigh about a gram," said the fishery biologist. "Presumably, if these fish survive, there will be more food for salmon and trout, but I have some reservations. We saw a similar phenomenon in 2005, where there was a strong hatch but few adults materialized, because the mortality was high." The smelt upswing might go some way towards replenishing numbers of baitfish in Huron, but "this is not going to get us out of the woods" on its own, suggested Mr. Schaeffer. Nor should nocturnal scoopers get too excited just yet. "You're not going to see huge smelt dipping as a result of this," he cautioned. There is some encouraging news, though, for anyone who values a resurgence in native species. "We've had good chub hatches in recent years," noted Mr. Schaeffer. "They have survived and are growing, with the average size in catches being up." And in the southern main basin, at least, "we also saw emerald shiners, which is a very positive sign," he added. This fish might be tiny (six-10 centimetres) but it's a naturally occurring species and an indication of ecological equilibrium. The resurgence of this green-tinged shiner, as with that of the much bigger lake trout, is linked closely to the crash in alewife numbers, according to Mr. Schaeffer. "As soon as the alewife disappeared, we saw the return of emerald shiners and the first evidence in decades of wild lake trout reproducing," he said. The transition was quite dramatic for those studying the lake's fish population. "In 28 years of trawling, we had seen about five baby lake trout," noted Mr. Schaeffer. "In 2004, we caught 22, which doesn't sound like a big number, but if you think about the size of the lake, and multiply that across the whole area, it was a very strong hatch." Those newborn lakers observed five years ago "are now adults showing up in our survey," he said. "The lake trout fishery is not recovered yet, but the signs are all positive. Lake trout appear to be very stable, and may even be increasing." The alewife exit in the earlier part of this decade also cued "the onset of walleye reproduction," Mr. Schaeffer noted. "They are definitely increasing, at least on the US side, where record-high catches in Saginaw Bay began immediately after the loss of alewives." The imports had provided food for some species, including salmon and a certain variety of black bird, but had a detrimental impact on others, as "adult alewives can be quite a voracious predator, and we think they consumed the eggs of walleye," said Mr. Schaeffer. While The Sturgeon has wrapped up its investigative tour for this year, a sister vessel called The Grayling is still combing the lower depths of the lake through bottom trawling, and data collected by each craft will be compiled over the winter months, said Mr. Schaeffer. Between the two types of sampling, "we get a more complete picture," he said, adding that a report on the research will be delivered in March. Meanwhile, The Sturgeon will be parked in Cheboygan, where "a relatively ice-free port" means it can stay in the water year-round. "You do get ice, but it's not thick enough to pose a problem," said Mr. Schaeffer. "It has a massive steel hull." While both ships sail out of Michigan, and receive funding from the US government, the work is undertaken jointly with Ontario, which also contributes financially to the research and often has biologists on board. Mr. Schaeffer said he and his American colleagues "always look forward to the Canadian portion of the trip," as these parts of the lake are particularly beautiful and "we like meeting people up there." The vessel docks each night at various ports, and Mr. Schaeffer's habit is to "go out on the back deck in the morning with coffee," at which point he almost invariably encounters a curious passerby, or five, on the dock. "We have lots of interesting discussions," he said. Canadians tend to be "really friendly," he said, while admitting that he was "yelled at" one time by an Islander who had strong feelings about cormorants. He didn't take it personally, though, and just tried to gently remind this individual that birds are really outside the mandate of the USGS crew. "We try to keep the talk focussed on fish," he said. During the most recent jaunt through the North Channel, "I had a wonderful talk with a First Nation person," he said, concerning the traditional Ojibwe belief in an underwater creature, generally referred to as Mishepeshu. The individual "wanted to know if we ever saw them." The answer was 'no,' but Mr. Schaeffer can't entirely rule out the possibility of such a leviathan existing. "I think it's very likely a spirit animal that isn't detectable by science, but the absence of evidence isn't conclusive evidence of absence," he said. He pointed out that, for years, there had been talk among tribespeople in Africa of a strange creature that was a sort of giraffe-zebra hybrid. Scientists scoffed. "No-one believed it existed; it was legendary," he said. "Finally someone did see one-the okapi." While he's not really expecting a half-lynx, half-snake monster to suddenly become snared in a USGS net, he and his colleagues are always braced for a surprise of some sort, and hope it won't be of the Asian carp variety, a documented oversized nasty that has been making its way up the Mississippi and is now banging at the (electrified) gate of the Great Lakes. "Very often it is our group that is typically the first to find invaders," he said. "And that's one of the reasons we're out there-to assess the fish community, and detect change." So far, though, the so-called flying carp has been blessedly absent in USGS catches. "We've heard recently that it was sighted in the Great Lakes, but who knows," he said. "We've had reports in the past, and it turned out to be the common carp. And even if someone sees one, it doesn't mean it's established." Right now, "there is no evidence of the Asian carp being established," he reassured. "We haven't seen one in our surveys, and we wouldn't be secretive about it if we did."

Maybe a brown.

The second fish is definitely not a rainbow!

B.C. judge to head salmon inquiry Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009 Mark Hume and Bill Curry / Globe and Mail In this 2006 file photo, B.C. sockeye salmon gather in the shallows of the Adams River near Chase, B.C. northeast of Vancouver. / REUTERS British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen has been appointed to head a sweeping judicial inquiry into the collapse of the most important salmon run on the West Coast. Justice Cohen will investigate "the causes for the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon including, but not limited to, the impact of environmental conditions, aquaculture, predators, diseases, water temperature and other factors that may have affected the ability of sockeye salmon to reach traditional spawning grounds or reach the ocean." Details of the inquiry were being released this morning in Vancouver by Stockwell Day, Minister of International Trade. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to hold the inquiry is being called a last, best hope to avert a fisheries disaster on the West Coast. “This is our chance to save B.C. salmon from going the way of Atlantic cod,” Phil Eidsvik, a spokesman for the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition, said Thursday after Mr. Harper's surprise announcement in Ottawa. “It's a slim chance, but it's great news because we know there are ways to protect and save the run,” he said. “We know the department has been unable, for whatever reason, to do it – and only an inquiry will get to those reasons.” The announcement, which will be fleshed out Friday by Stockwell Day, the regional minister for B.C., could have immediate political impact because the salmon crisis is a key issue in Monday's federal by-election in New Westminster-Coquitlam. NDP Leader Jack Layton is arriving Friday to campaign over the weekend with his candidate, Fin Donnelly, a strong environmental advocate who once swam the length of the Fraser River to underscore the plight of salmon and who has been calling for an inquiry. Demands for an inquiry escalated this fall after the Fraser River sockeye run collapsed – with only about one million fish returning to spawn when between 10 million and 13 million had been expected. Mr. Harper made the announcement in the House of Commons. “We are very concerned about the low and falling returns of sockeye salmon in British Columbia,” he said, adding that Mr. Day would provide details today. “[He] will be making an announcement outlining the terms of reference for a judicial inquiry, as well as the judge who will lead that inquiry,” Mr. Harper said. The public inquiry will be mandated to report back to the government on or before May 1, 2011. It will have complete authority to hold hearings, summon witnesses and gather evidence as needed. “An inquiry has access to all DFO documents and they can bring people in and they testify under oath, with the chance of going to jail if they lie,” Mr. Eidsvik said. “And a judicial inquiry is the only format for that to happen. It gives us the best chance to get at the truth as to what's happened to our salmon runs.” Alexandra Morton, an independent scientist, said the inquiry needs to examine in detail the reasons why some 130 million salmon smolts, which migrated out of the Fraser, never returned from the ocean. “The establishment of a judicial inquiry into the management of the Fraser River sockeye fishery gives new hope for the future of a great salmon river,” said Conservative MP John Cummins, who has long sought just such an investigation into DFO. “We face a disaster of epic proportions on the Fraser. In six out of the last 11 years the fishery has been closed. Tens of thousands of B.C. families have suffered as a result,” he said. The Conservatives had promised an inquiry into B.C.'s salmon fishery before – during the 2006 campaign – but Vancouver Island North Tory MP John Duncan said the initial resistance to the idea that surfaced then has since passed. “We now have the circumstances where it's not about finger pointing any more. It's about getting to the bottom of what's actually going on,” he said, explaining that at the time of the original commitment there was some resistance from the fishing industry and first nations. But he said that has changed . Clarence Pennier, Grand Chief of the Stó:lô Tribal Council, welcomed the announcement, saying native communities along the Fraser are in “despair” over the failure of the sockeye run. “We are in the dark as to why the sockeye runs didn't make it back to the river. We are still looking for the answers and this is why we support a judicial inquiry,” Chief Pennier said. Rafe Mair, a public commentator and environmental advocate, said with pressure building for an inquiry, Mr. Harper had no choice but to act. “I don't think they are really taking any political risks here,” he said. “I don't think people would blame Harper for the crash.… they would, however, pin it on him if he didn't have an inquiry. He had to do it.” Alex Rose, author of Who Killed the Grand Banks: The Untold Story Behind the Decimation of One of the World's Greatest Natural Resources , said an inquiry could help reshape DFO and alter the fate of B.C. salmon. “I applaud Mr. Harper on this decision,” he said. “It's long overdue and I hope we get the chance to look at the failed mechanisms in DFO, a department I consider intellectually bankrupt.”

Carp barrier maintenance not just Corps' problem, official says Nov. 6, 2009 Dan Egan / Journal Sentinel A lot of noise has been made in recent weeks about President Barack Obama's $5 billion Great Lakes restoration plan, but nobody in the federal government right now is willing to spend a penny so necessary maintenance can be done on the Asian carp barrier built to keep the jumbo jumping fish from spilling into Lake Michigan. The electric barrier, located about 20 miles south of the Lake Michigan shoreline on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, was turned on last April but requires regular maintenance every six months. Biologists liken it to an oil change in a car, and to do the work the barrier needs to be shut down for a day or two. The problem is the carp are now swarming within about a mile of the barrier, so to keep the fish from swimming past the barrier during the down time, fish poison needs to be dumped in the canal. The cost to poison the canal is estimated to be about $750,000, and U.S. Army Corps officials say they don't believe it is their responsibility to pay that bill. "That is not a task that the Corps normally does and the best way to address the threat of Asian carp of getting into Lake Michigan (during the barrier shutdown) is through multiple agencies," said Col. Vincent Quarles of the Army Corps' Chicago office. The Environmental Protection Agency recently received $475 million to begin Great Lakes restoration work, but at this point that agency, or any other state or federal agency, isn't stepping forward to spend the money everyone agrees needs to be spent to protect the lakes. The EPA's point person for Great Lakes restoration, Cameron Davis, declined to comment for this article. The situation has the people who are fighting to keep the fish from invading the world's largest freshwater system at wits' end. "It's frustrating as hell," Phil Moy, a University of Wisconsin Sea Grant biologist who is the co-chairman of the advisory panel that is helping the Army Corps with the barrier, said this week. "In a time when you're throwing around millions and millions of dollars for (Great Lakes restoration), you'd like to see a tiny little piece of that sent our way." Quarles said he doesn't believe the barrier is in imminent danger of breaking down, but he conceded nobody really knows how the $9 million contraption is holding up until they can turn it off and get a look under the hood. "I'm sure once we shut it down we'll learn a lot," he said.