I just found out that new evidence of Asian carp has been discovered near Lake Michigan. The new test results came back positive for silver carp seventeen times in one day. That’s right: seventeen times! This could be the largest number of positive eDNA results sampled in one day from the Army Corps in three years of testing. Fourteen of those positive hits came from Lake Calumet, where two years ago a live bighead carp was caught by commercial fisherman.

Dan Egan with the Journal Sentinel captures the story.

Not good news

What this means is more and more Asian carp are finding their way past the electrical barrier —which is in direct contrast with the Army Corps’ assurance that these barriers are working to stop carp from entering the Great Lakes.

Also of concern is that these new test results were apparently posted 10 days ago very quietly via an update on a website that only a select few wonks (including me) check.

Given that Asian carp negatively impact our fish, wildlife and economy of the Great Lakes, this information should have been released more broadly to the public.

If this doesn’t alarm folks—it should. We need to permanently separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River in Chicago in order to stop Asian carp and other invasive species from moving back in forth between both basins.

While the Corps sluggishly moves, Asian carp are swimming faster and getting closer to our Great Lakes. We appreciate the efforts of the White House to speed up its efforts on finding a solution, but more urgent action needs to happen now or our Great Lakes will never be the same.