MITIGATION OF THE UPSTREAM MOVEMENT OF BIGHEADED CARPS IN ILLINOIS (Invited Presentation)

In the early 1970’s, silver carp and bighead carp were imported into the United States for use in aquaculture and sewage lagoons. These two species, collectively referred to as bigheaded carps, subsequently began to spread throughout the Mississippi River Basin, competing with native species for food and habitat as their populations grew. The ecological and economic impact of bigheaded carps can be devastating, and as a result, there has been a huge large amount of effort directed toward the development of monitoring and control strategies. The Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ACRCC), a team of U.S. and Canadian federal, state, provincial, and local agencies, leads this effort by facilitating coordination, development, and implementation of the Asian Carp Action Plan across state and federal borders, as well as watershed boundaries.

The mission of the ACRCC is to prevent bigheaded carps from entering the Great Lakes and establishing breeding populations. In particular, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (CSSC), part of the Chicago Area Waterways System, has been identified as the primary pathway for the potential transfer of bigheaded carps from the Illinois River basin to Lake Michigan. In this presentation, new strategies and existing technologies for detecting and controlling bigheaded carps in the Illinois River and the CSSC will be discussed. Additionally, the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration between biologists, hydrologists, geographers, and engineers will be highlighted.