"Which is worse? Closing two locks on a waterway that's used to ship millions of dollars' worth of goods from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi basin? Or allowing a voracious Asian carp to deplete the food supply of native fish sustaining a Midwestern fishing industry that nets $7 billion a year?"
I'd like you to read the article that asks this question, and then I'd like you to answer it in your response.
Which is worse? What would you do if you were in charge?
The Washington Post Article, Tough Choices Follow In The Wake Of Invasive Species can be found here:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/30/AR2010013000939.html
(Note it looks like you will have to to cut and paste the address manually into your address bar in order to go to the article)
7 comments:
Mr E.
I think that the area in which the Asian Carp shout be gated off, even though it would cost millions of dollars. Though it is a tough decision, i think ultimately it is the only sensible choice. By allowing the species to spread, the carp could deplete, or possibly eradicate the supply of native fish. This would end up costing the industry more than isolating the Asian carp for a time to gain control of their population.
-Lydia
I agree with Lydia. It seems like big deal right now, but if they were to gate it off, it would save them in the long run. There could be a day where the industry never sees a native fish again. That WOULD cost much more than gating it.
On another note, it amazes me the things people will do without thinking, and then they don't even want to be responsible for the results.
There is no perfect solution. Whatever way it ends up working out, I think that favor should be put on whatever wildlife was already there. Especially if the internet is maintained, i see no reason why people in general can't learn to live without things such as being able to travel all the way around the globe in a day. It is my hope that humanity, now that we can share information almost instantly, can go back to having less material things, or at least more efficient ones.
- The Ferginator
I think that the council is fully acredited in the choice to gate out the Asian Carp. The fishing industry in that area is threatened by the introduction of the Carp and are legitiment in their worry of the Asian Carp injuring the fishing economy. While I also believe that it is important that we adjust to exotic animals living in our environment because it is easier to learn to live with the changes that intergrating the foreign animals will provide than it would be to keep them gated off for future generations to deal with.
-Maya
Mr. E,
I feel the area in which the Asian carp are should be gated off because sure it will cost millions but it will allow trade and that is even more important I feel to us then the carp industries. I think this is the most sensible choice because its more legit and a better idea then the other way around. So yes I think the Asian Carp should be gated off for a while. It would also alow better population control!
-Katrina
Thousands of jobs vs an entire ecosystem? Um, wow. A step that everyone could agree on is to build an additional "electric gate" to curtail the fish's spread into the lake. Afterwards, I would have no idea what to do. The huge economic impact of closing the gates versus the huge ecological impact of NOT doing it makes this desiccation nearly impossible (for me, at least.) My approach would be to look for alternative solutions to the fish problem, such as fishing tourneys or introducing genetic mutagens into the lake which would destroy the fish populations. OK, that last one may be a little silly.
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