No Asian carp found in fish kill

No Asian carp found in fish kill

I'm surprised animal rights activists even allowed this in the first place. And note the last sentence - the bodies of the fish are going to be sent to a landfill. Can't they be turned into fertilizer? Have something good come out of their deaths?

Biologists check 100,000 pounds of fish in Chicago waterways
Biotechnology Industry By Joel Hood, CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER

Biologists wrapped up another exhaustive search for Asian carp in Chicago's waterways Tuesday, an orchestrated massive fish kill designed to test the validity of DNA results that had indicated the presence of the fish in the Calumet-Sag Channel.

Failing to find even a single Asian carp was good news for those who feared the aggressive invasive species was within striking distance of Lake Michigan. But the results further complicate an already divisive political issue and raise new questions about what may have triggered positive DNA samples in the first place.

"We don't question the methodology of the eDNA research; we look at it like one tool to help us make the right choices," said Chris McCloud, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. "We'll continue to use eDNA to see what risks exist to the Great Lakes."

Researchers tracking the movement of Asian carp up the Chicago river system have been using a method of DNA sampling called eDNA, or environmental DNA, which involves collecting cells commonly found in fish scales, feces and urine. The DNA is then matched against a global database for Asian carp and independently verified.

Researchers have discovered a couple dozen carp samples among the 1,000 or so DNA samples taken from Chicago's waterways over the past year, an indication that carp might be moving north toward Lake Michigan.

The problem with eDNA sampling, however, is that it can't determine whether the cells come from a live fish or dead fish, prompting many different interpretations of the data and fueling the debate around its use.

"Much more needs to be known about eDNA before it becomes the basis for another massive fish kill," said Mark Biel, executive director of the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, an organization that has fought to keep Chicago's waterways open to shipping traffic.

McCloud said the state is not ready to say Chicago's waterways are free of bighead and silver carp. Scientists will take some time to study the more than 100,000 pounds of fish, comprising at least 40 species, removed from the channel. Those fish will be destroyed and sent to a landfill.