While swim bans in Lake Michigan may be a thing of the past after the Park District stopped issuing the.
Asian carp are the future.
Prevention officials will be working to keep command and control over the threat these invasive fish as they attempt to invade the region.
Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee officials announced Thursday, at Garfield Park Lagoon, plans to intensify their monitoring and removal of Asian carp.
The ACRCC laid out its Monitoring and Rapid Response Plan geared to aggressively track and remove Asian carp in the Upper Illinois and the Chicago Area Waterway System, according to a ACRCC press release.
The infamous Asian carp are an invasive species that are known to be fairly large and jump out of the water at nearly eight to 10-feet in the air.
Department of Natural Resources Director John Rogner said the new plan demonstrates vigilance in finding and removing live Asian carp from Illinois waters.
“From public fishing ponds to fish markets, we need to find and remove live Asian carp from these systems in order to minimize their spread,” said Rogner.
The vigorous plan will conduct surveillance of local urban fishing ponds like the Garfield Park Lagoon, swept today by Fisheries biologist, and others in the Chicago area.
It also includes plans to monitor fish markets, perform random electrofishing and netting sites, enhance detection capabilities and underwater video imaging, just to name a few.
But, don’t be too alarmed Chicagoans, these guys have been doing this type of monitoring for three years. The ACRCC constructed an electric barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and a 13-mile physical barrier along the Des Plaines River.
ACRCC was formed by the Obama administration in 2009.
