Meeting on Invasive Species in Great Lakes and Mississippi River

[chaffmj]

I know a lot of you care about what happens to the waters that we fish so here is a chance for you to voice your opinion either in person or online about invasive species in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins. I'm not sure what good will come out of this but they are spending our tax money on this so you might as well be heard.

The Army Corps of Engineers is conducting a study on the Great Lakes and Mississipp River Basins to explore preventing the transfer of invasive species. They will be in Minneapolis on January 20th to hear public opinion. If you want to voice an opinion in person or online here is your chance to do so. See the info below on how you can heard or if you just want to find out what is going on you can do that also.

I have also posted this in the outdoor discussion forum.

PUBLIC MEETING IN MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

TOPIC: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is conducting a study to explore options and technologies that could be applied to prevent the transfer of aquatic nuisance species between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins. This study is commonly called "GLMRIS," the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study.

USACE is seeking our input on this important study!

MEETING DETAILS: USACE will be hosting a public meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 20th from 2 PM to 8 PM to hear our comments. The meeting will be held at the University of Minnesota's McNamara Alumni Center http://glmris.anl.gov/documents/docs/McNamaraAlumniCenterParkingMap.pdf.

If you want to make an oral comment during the meeting, register to speak at http://glmris.anl.gov/involve/pubschedule/index.cfm .

COMMENT PERIOD: If you cannot make it to the meeting, please comment online http://glmris.anl.gov/involve/comments/index.cfm. Please note the comment period closes on MARCH 31, 2011.

EMAIL ANNOUNCEMENTS: Subscribe to receive e-mail announcements pertaining to GLMRIS at http://glmris.anl.gov/email/index.cfm.

[Jarrid Houston]

Good stuff chaff....I wish I could attend to show my support! I hope that this i a successful meeting and people leave feeling good about what is to become of these invasives! One big concern I have is these asian carp....

[Northlander]

I hope my comments get read. In all the e-mails I have sent to various organizations on this matter not 1 has gotten back to me. Tels me how much they want to hear my word.

[chaffmj]

I know how you feel. If you don't mind I know someone who is involved with this and I will pass your comment on to them.

[Surface Tension]

Thanks for the post Mike.

In the DNT I read that COs will be cracking down anglers with smelt and ciscos in attempt to slow the spread of VHS.

Meanwhile its business as usual with the shipping industry.

[Steve Foss]

Meanwhile its business as usual with the shipping industry.

And that's the name of that tune. No government agency needs to spend our tax dollars doing another study of Great Lakes invasive species in order to know what to do to stop the spread. They already know what's necessary.

[chaffmj]

While I agree with you that they spend way too much money on studys instead of action if you all don't mind I would like to pass these comments on to someone who is involved and maybe it might hit home, maybe not but it won't cost you anything to have me do it.

[Steve Foss]

On my end, Mike, go for it!

It's shipping that is the root cause of these invasives, and the Corps doesn't have a lot of ability to change anything there. An overhaul of shipping and ballast water regulations requires action from Congress, which is why I'm basically without hope of effective change. Even if one of the Great Lakes states' congressional representatives starts the ball rolling, the process of lobbying by business interests and the "art of compromise" practiced in the Halls of Power would water it down, if you'll pardon the pun. Unless the clampdowns are absolute, invasives will continue to appear.

And that's only talking about preventing future invasives. We've got plenty of invasive species on our plate right now, and they don't all taste good.

Just my take.

[Northlander]

Its all Lip Service to me. When I start seeing SOMEONE actually force these ships coming into our waters to treat their bilge waters properly, not the candy azz stuff they are suggesting now except for New York, I wont waste my time on their meetings and studies. Like was said they know exactly what to do but they dont want to spend the $ to do it or upset the big bad wolf! We all know shipping in Duluth is big but is it so big that we are willing to take away our clean water, recreation and lively hoods of some. What would that cost come out to be.

Im done with this I get more and more pizzed off every time I hear about this.

[chaffmj]

I just got done talking with the person I know involved with this and they said it was the 2007 water resource act by Congress that called for the Corps to do this study. It was funded by Congress and they give them the results and then Congress make the decision on what to do.

The way I see it is that this is something that is moving along slowly and more than likely will end up with little or no results but maybe, just maybe something good will come out of this.

NL I get how you feel and if I was you I would do the same. If you don't mind my friend would like to submit everybody's comments from here for feedback in the study and since you have already posted them it won't waste anymore of your time.

[JBMasterAngler]

Just out of curiousity, have any native great lakes' fish become nuisance exotics in the caspian sea?

[Northlander]

Good question. Can they live in a salt water environment?

[JBMasterAngler]

I would think alot of the baitfish (smelt especially) would have the highest salt tolerance. Smelt aren't native of course, but they're from the ocean as opposed to the caspian sea.