{"id":239920,"date":"2025-10-21T01:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/239920\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T01:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:40:14","slug":"illinois-one-step-closer-to-keeping-invasive-carp-out-of-great-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/239920\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois one step closer to keeping invasive carp out of Great Lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist<\/a>, a nonprofit environmental media organization.<\/p>\n

The Silver carp is big, unwieldy, and requires Joe Greendyk use both hands to measure it before tossing the fish overboard into the Illinois River.<\/p>\n

The nearly 2-foot-long aquatic menace, which now overruns the river, has become the target of a state-run monitoring program to rein in its exploding numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re pretty slimy and pretty strong,\u201d Greendyk says with his hands caked in fish slime. He\u2019s a seasonal field researcher with the Illinois Natural History Survey. \u201cSo if you don\u2019t grip them right, they\u2019re pretty hard to control.\u201d<\/p>\n

For decades, local, state and federal officials have worried the carp could bypass Chicago and breach the Great Lakes, possibly reducing populations of native species that locals like to fish. The feared spread could wreak havoc on the world\u2019s largest freshwater ecosystem and the multibillion-dollar tourism, boating and fishing industries that rely on it. Carp, which can out-eat and outgrow native fish, can also leap out of the water and startle boaters.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Researchers attempt to catch a silver carp.<\/p>\n

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\n Ashlee Rezin\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Silver carp jump out of the waters of the Illinois River as Illinois Natural History Survey researchers use electric currents to stun fish to study invasive carp abundance near Starved Rock in Ottawa, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

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\n Ashlee Rezin\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Joe Greendyk\u2019s hands are caked in fish slime after handling carp.<\/p>\n

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\n Ashlee Rezin\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Joe Greendyk measures a silver carp.<\/p>\n

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\n Ashlee Rezin\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Illinois Natural History Survey researchers Jamie Ziegler and Joe Greendyk enjoy the view while ecologist Andrew Mathis drives the electrofishing boat to study invasive carp abundance in the Illinois River.<\/p>\n

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\n Ashlee Rezin\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Illinois Natural History Survey researchers catch fish in their nets.<\/p>\n

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\n Ashlee Rezin\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Silver carp jump out of the waters of the Illinois River as Illinois Natural History Survey researchers use electric currents to stun fish to study invasive carp abundance near Starved Rock Marina in Ottawa, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

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\n Ashlee Rezin\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Buffalo, silver carp, and other fish float in a live well on an Illinois Natural History Survey electrofishing boat.<\/p>\n

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\n Ashlee Rezin\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Andrew Mathis, a large river fisheries ecologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, inputs data as he and other researchers use electric currents to stun fish to study invasive carp abundance in the Illinois River near Starved Rock in Ottawa, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

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\n Ashlee Rezin\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

The fight to keep the carp under control and out of the Great Lakes may be getting easier. Last week, Illinois announced it had acquired land needed to move forward with a $1.15 billion barricade aimed at keeping the voracious Asian carp from entering the channel that connects the Mississippi River Basin with the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n

The barricade, called the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, is an underwater defense system long hailed as the solution to the carp problem.<\/p>\n

Designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it\u2019s slated to be built in the Des Plaines River, which connects the Illinois River to Chicago\u2019s shipping canal near suburban Joliet. The billion dollar lock and dam upgrade will deploy a bubble wall, acoustic blasts, an electric barrier and a flushing mechanism to keep the carp from passing through.<\/p>\n

Last week, Illinois officials announced they had reached a deal on Sept. 30 for the two small upland parcels totaling 2.75 acres required for the project. The donation may, however, end up costing Illinois taxpayers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Silver<\/p>\n

Silver carp jump out of the waters of the Illinois River near Starved Rock in Ottawa, Ill.<\/p>\n

WBEZ and Grist have previously revealed longstanding concerns from state officials over contamination at the site caused by burning coal. Pritzker cited concerns about the cost of cleaning up the toxic mess in a 2024 letter<\/a> to the Army Corps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be irresponsible to write a blank check to the Corps of Engineers or any other project manager without having a better understanding of what we\u2019re agreeing to for the long term,\u201d Pritzker\u2019s spokesperson said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources confirmed that state officials are currently developing a plan to investigate the site and are reviewing whether any additional land is needed.<\/p>\n

Despite these concerns, regional leaders are pushing forward the necessary funding. Earlier this month, Pritzker joined six other Great Lakes governors in submitting a letter<\/a> to Congress, calling the project a \u201cnational priority\u201d and urging lawmakers to provide full federal financing.<\/p>\n

The invasive carp \u2014 a family of fish which also includes the Bighead carp, Black carp and Grass Carp \u2014 first turned up in the Mississippi River about 50 years ago. Experts say fish began overwhelming the waterway after escaping Arkansas fish farms, where they were imported to help limit algae and weed growth. In the intervening years, the fish expanded their range throughout the river and its tributaries \u2014 beginning to dominate the Illinois River in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

From the back of the carp sampling boat where Greendyk grabbed the slimy fish, Michael Spear, a quantitative ecologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, said the carp populations weren\u2019t as high in the northern stretch of the river as they are further downstream.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut still, we should see some action,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Silver<\/p>\n

Silver carp populations are declining in some parts of the Illinois River.<\/p>\n

Back in 2019, the INHS partnered with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to establish a program to track the relative abundance of the carp up and down the Illinois River. As part of the program, crews of ecologists catch and track the health of the carp and native fish every year between June and October.<\/p>\n

The data helps the state stay ahead of the carp. If populations are surging in one stretch of the river, Illinois officials can adapt their main form of carp control: paying commercial fishermen for targeted catches, including an extra 10 cents per pound of carp.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making an increasingly large dent in the population, according to these data,\u201d Spear said. \u201cThat incentive seems to be paying off.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to the area near Starved Rock State, one of the northernmost stretches of the more than 270-mile-long river, where he has noted drastic declines in the carp over the last five years. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources didn\u2019t say exactly how much carp populations have declined.<\/p>\n

Spear watched from the back of the boat as Greendyk and the rest of the crew wrapped up their sampling work for the day. While the data is promising, he said nobody wants to find out what happens if the carp ever make it past Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe carp may not be in some of these other Great Lakes states,\u201d Spear said. \u201cBut there\u2019s a lot of attention from those states, because if they get into the Great Lakes, it\u2019s going to become a much more regional problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"ASIANCARP-08XX25-10.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Silver carp jump out of the waters of the Illinois River as Illinois Natural History Survey researchers use electric currents to stun fish to study invasive carp abundance near Starved Rock in Ottawa, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-239920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}