Having recently returned from the Great Lakes Day in Washington D.C. along with Capt. Brad Petzke, I would like to personally extend my appreciation to the Michigan River Guide Association (MRGA) and the Healing Our Waters Coalition (HOW) for providing the financial means for us to participate in the event.  The event was scheduled for two days with informational sessions on the first day followed by meetings with our elected officials on the second day.  Following the first day of meetings with the organizers and guest speakers, the Canadian Embassy put on a social gathering where our own Senators Stabenow and Levin were keynote speakers regarding the current state of the Great Lakes and some of the issues they were working on to help preserve the most valuable resources of our region.  Special emphasis for the event was to secure extra funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, procure restoration and recovery efforts through the reauthorization of the Great Lakes Legacy Act and to stop the Asian Carp Invasion.

I was able to meet with representatives from the offices of Senator Stabenow, Senator Levin, Congressman Camp, and Congressman Hoekstra to discuss the issues and get a feel for where the elected officials stood on the problems we are facing in the Great Lakes Region.  It was nice to hear that all the representatives that I met with are for the most aggressive approach to stopping the Asian Carp invasion and both Congressman Camp and Senator Stabenow have proposed bipartisan legislation through the House and the Senate respectively.  I also learned that Congressman Hoekstra plans on submitting legislation that would focus more on the emergency actions regarding the Asian Carp and how to proceed when future eDNA tests are found with positive results for Asian Carp outside the established fish dispersal barriers.  They are also pushing for more aggressive tactics in surveying areas of concern as well as establishing a multitude of fish dispersal barriers that would combine electrical, bubble, and acoustic technologies to prevent fish from moving upstream.  All the offices we spoke with are also pushing for Ecological Separation as a long term solution and ultimately that will be the only way to prevent future invasive species events both into and out of the Great Lakes.  It was comforting to hear that our legislators are doing what they can at this current moment, but it was also disheartening to know that this mess can still be expedited through an Executive Order from our Commander in Chief, President Barack Obama.

Brad posed a question regarding the timing of the events that may provide an acceptable course of action to tackle the Asian Carp threat head on and the answer was hard to swallow.  Assuming that legislation such as the Carp Act is put to a vote this year and the legislation is passed in the House or the Senate, the earliest a vote may take place would be in September!   If the bill is passed it may take another 2- 3 months to implement its course of actions and all this would mean that it is likely nothing will be done to “legally” strengthen the fight against Asian Carp this year.  The only hope for an immediate response to enforce a “zero tolerance” stance against the Asian Carp would be for the Supreme Court to side with the lawsuit filed by Michigan’s Attorney General Mike Cox or again, through an Executive Order from President Obama delegating the Army Corps of Engineers as the lead agency and authorize them with emergency powers to act as they see fit if the Asian Carp breach the fish dispersal barriers already in place along the Chicago Waterway System.

We were encouraged by our legislators to continue to write letters to our elected officials asking them to take all the necessary precautions to fight this invasive species threat.  Everyone we talked to made a very good point that even though they all appear to be on board with the issue it gives them more power as a voice of opposition if they have 150,000 letters of support vs. 75,000 letters demonstrating the same opinion.  So I ask you as concerned citizens, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts to keep writing and voicing your opinions in every arena possible.  This is the only way our concerns will be realized and hopefully we will all be able to come together and resolve the issue in a timely matter before it is too late.

Tight Lines,

Ed