WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

A lot of people are worried about Asian carp swimming into the Great Lakes. We know from experience how bad an invasive species can be. Sea lamprey devastated the Great Lakes fishery in the 1940s and 50s, and they still kill a lot of fish.Sea lamprey are native to the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s a beautiful summer day and I’m paddling my little kayak right down the main channel of the St. Lawrence Seaway. This moment, I have it all to myself--there’s a lighthouse just off my bow, and not a big ship in sight.

In connecting the Great Lake Michigan to the Mighty Mississippi, Chicago left the back door open to some unwelcome visitors. Asian Carp are the latest threat and our last line of defense spans the Sanitary and Ship Canal, about 30 miles southwest of the city.

The Great Lakes region has always been defined by water. The “sweetwater seas,” as the lakes were known, sustained indigenous people, and served as a thoroughfare for hunters, fur traders and early voyagers.

Federal regulators have struck a deal with environmental groups to clamp down on invasive species in waterways like the Great Lakes. The legal settlement paves the way to treat invaders carried in ships’ ballast water more like other pollution.