Sierra Club Great Lakes Policy on Asian Carp

Final as approved by Sierra Club (US & Canada) on 5 December 2011

Whereas the Asian carp (bighead, silver, grass and black) have invaded extensive portions of the United States waters and the silver and bighead carps present a serious and immediate threat of invasion into the Great Lakes ecosystem, via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal; and

Whereasthe Asian carp have caused ecological devastation in the Illinois and Mississippi River systems in specific river sections where they have become well established—95 percent of the biomass in some river sections is composed of Asian carp; and

Whereasthe Asian carp cause this devastation through highly efficient reproduction and filter feeding that effectively removes the plankton that serve as the base of the food chain—without enough plankton to support forage fish, shellfish and other species, native species decline ; and

Whereas if the Asian carp invade the Great Lakes via U.S. waterways, they will have gained access to Canadian waters of the Great Lakes as well direct access to Canadian tributaries and inland rivers and waters; and 

Whereasthe Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans published a detailed risk assessment suggesting that, if Asian carp gain entry to the Great Lakes, there is very high risk that they will rapidly spread throughout the basin, colonizing nearshore waters and tributary ecosystems in the U.S. and Canada, displacing native species and dramatically altering the food web in many locations; and

Whereas multiple initiatives are underway in the United States on the federal and state level to develop solutions to the migration of Asian carp and other invasive species between the two basins via artificial connections; and

Whereas NGOs, scientists and policymakers from across the Great Lakes region support  permanent barriers to separate the hydrological connections to the Great Lakes at Chicago as the only long-term permanent solution to stopping the transfer of Asian carp and other aquatic invasive species via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Great Lakes Commission and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Cities Initiative has developed scenarios for permanently separating the Mississippi River and Great Lakes watersheds, with a focus on the Chicago Area Waterway System;

Therefore be it resolved

That Sierra Club supports the urgent implementation of a plan to install permanent barriers to separate the hydrological connections at Chicago of the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River.