From the Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel:

Thursday was a rough day to be a fish in the Little Calumet River south of downtown Chicago.

Dozens of fishery crews took to the murky waters with barrels of fish poison in the latest effort to keep Asian carp from swimming up the heavily plumbed Chicago waterway system and into Lake Michigan.

“We’re going to be able to kill damn near everything in here,” said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deputy regional director Charlie Wooley at the beginning of a five-day, $1.5 million fish eradication program on a two-mile stretch of river.

Federal officials are hoping to confirm what environmental DNA testing has been telling them for the better part of a year: At least a tiny number of the voracious invasive carp have breached an electric barrier about 25 miles downstream from Lake Michigan.

“If there are Asian carp here, we should get confirmation of that this week,” said John Rogner of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Read more.

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Find us at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, March 27–29! We’re linking Subnautica with Great Lakes science through fun, hands‑on activities about food webs, invasive species, and aquaponics.Come geek out with us! 🔗 in bio for event info
Coastal protection is not limited to concrete, rocks, and steel. Coastal protection solutions exist on a spectrum, ranging from softer “green” solutions to harder “gray” structures.Nature-based coastal solutions fall between green and gray techniques, providing multiple benefits to people and habitats.Our three-part video series, Nature-Based Coastal Solutions in the Great Lakes, is now available to watch. Learn how nature-based coastal solutions, including nature-driven and hybrid approaches, can protect shorelines while supporting ecosystems and communities.Watch the 3-part video series at the link in bio.(Photo credit: Liz Spitzer, Illinois State Geological Survey, Coastal Research Group)
Managers and researchers can be faced with a need to classify the risk of new crayfish invaders. Rapid assessment tools, such as the Science-based Tools for Assessing Invasion Risk (STAIR), can assist in this process by providing a streamlined framework for analysis and decision-making.Join us for an ICC webinar with John Bieber from Loyola University Chicago to learn how rapid assessment tools are used to classify invasive species risk and how STAIR can support invasive crayfish management.Learn more at the link in bio.