Invasive Alien Fence

A $6.7 million electric fence is being planned for the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Its purpose will be to stop invasive alien carp from traveling from the Mississippi River to the Great Lakes. According to this report,

Asian carp eat up to 40 percent of their body weight daily, grow up to 100 pounds and have no natural predators. They are working their way up the Mississippi River, where they have displaced other fish and now represent more than five out of every 10 fish in the river.

Officials from the federal level on down want to contain the fish so it does not cross into the Great Lakes through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the only direct link between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. The carp escaped from fish farms during floods.

Construction on the fence is scheduled to begin next month. About 50 steel rails will be secured to the bottom of the canal and electrified. A demonstration fence apparently worked well enough to justify building a more permanent installation.

I'll go out on a limb and predict that the fence will only impede the Asian carp, not stop them. In five years, the Asian carp will be in Lake Michigan, in ten, all the Great Lakes.

However, I could be wrong and the electric fence may work. If it does, maybe the US Border Patrol could use a similar installation to keep invasive aliens from Mexico out of the US.