Obama gets bill to list bighead carp as invasive

The U.S. House approved a bill yesterday that would add bighead carp to the national list of injurious wildlife, fish and plants. Bighead carp are the only of the four Asian carp species not on the list, Paul Quinlan of Environment & Energy News reports. The Senate passed the same bill by unanimous consent earlier this month so it now goes to President Obama for his approval. "The U.S. Congress took an important step today in the effort to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes," Michigan Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, who wrote the bill, said. "The devastating effects Asian carp could have on the Great Lakes are not fully known, and I want to make sure they are never realized."

"Listing the bighead carp ... will prohibit the interstate transportation or importation of live Asian carp without a permit," Quinlan writes. Asian carp have infested the Mississippi River system after escaping from Southern catfish farms, which used them to eat underwater vegtation, but they also eat other things and there are fears that they would devastate the Great Lakes ecosystem if they enter it through a Chicago canal. "Bighead and silver carp are the species that pose the greatest, most immediate threat to waters not yet infested, although black carp also pose a risk," Quinlan writes. (Read more, subscription required)