White House sets date for “Carp Summit”

January 29th, 2010 by Dave Nyberg.

Just a brief update on the Asian Carp situation - The White House yesterday announced that the so called "Carp Summit" between Obama Administration officials and Great Lakes governors will be held February 8 at at 2:30 p.m. at the White House. Prompted by a request from Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, White House Council of Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley announced last week that the meeting would take place during the first week of February.  

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn will join Granholm and Doyle at the meeting, presumably to defend his state's opposition to closing navigational locks in the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal - the last major obstacle preventing the invasive fish from potentially devastating a $7 billion Great Lakes sportfishery. Meanwhile, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has joined attorneys general from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Indiana in requesting an invite to the Summit. Aside from diplomatic political pressure on the Obama Administration, Michigan's petition to re-open the 1929 Wisconsin v. Illinois case remains a viable option to close the locks as does the CARP ACT legislation introduced last week by Michigan U.S. Representative Dave Camp and U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow.

On a lighter note, I have to give props to my good Yooper friend Craig LeClaire for pulling this monster walleye through the ice on Little Bay de Noc last week. Opportunities to catch fish like this may be few and far between if federal officials continue to oppose immediate solutions to stop Asian Carp.

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