• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

Keep Grass Carp out of our Great Lakes – Time is running out!

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In AWARE News Network
Nov 5th, 2018
2 Comments
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An adult grass carp commonly weighs over 20 pounds and can grow up to 48 inches in length

AWARE Simcoe note: We’re reposting this appeal – pressure is needed from all Great Lakes citizens and politicians at every level of government.

Ohio and Michigan states refusing to eradicate Grass Carp now in Lake Erie – threaten all the Great Lakes at a potential cost of $1.8 Billion annually

from Georgian Bay Great Lakes Foundation October 14 2018

The very large and highly invasive Grass Carp are now present in Lake Erie and reproducing in two Ohio rivers. In addition, they have made their way into the Detroit and St. Clair rivers and have been caught in Lake Huron. Georgian Bay and the North Channel are next. These fish will rip apart our high-quality wetlands and destroy the spawning and nursery habitat vital to our native fishes.

A 2017 binational, peer-reviewed Risk Assessment completed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the U.S. Geological Survey determined that the spread of Grass Carp into Lake Huron would likely occur within 10 years but stated: “If the rate of arrival increases, the onset and magnitude of risk will increase.”

Only one year later, they are in Lake Huron in unknown numbers!

Sign the petition!

That same Risk Assessment found that, of all four species of Asian carps now found in US waters adjacent to the Great Lakes, Grass Carp will do the most harm to the Great Lakes ecology.

The window of opportunity to eradicate invasive Grass Carp in Lake Erie is diminishing as they continue to spawn and their numbers increase,” said Professor Nicholas Mandrack, University of Toronto.

A joint US/Canada assessment carried out in 2017 found in the five Great Lakes up to 1.2 million acres of wetlands containing submerged aquatic plants. Each acre of wetland provides $1,500.00 in ecological services on an annual basis. If all the Great Lakes are invaded by Grass Carp, the cost of the loss of these ecological services could mount to $1.8 Billion per year.Can we afford to let this happen?

We need your help. Please sign our petition and ask your friends and family to sign and share our petition by email and on social media.

We, the undersigned, petition the US EPA and the states of Ohio and Michigan to respect the Mutual Aid Agreement signed by all Great Lakes jurisdictions, to declare the Grass Carp invasion to be a crisis, and to request assistance from the Great Lakes Mutual Aid Agreement signatories to undertake a full-scale eradication program immediately.

2 Responses to “Keep Grass Carp out of our Great Lakes – Time is running out!”

  1. Elaine Stephenson says:

    Do you have a link we can click where we can sign the petition?

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