It's not every day emergency response experts gather to test their readiness to deal with a fish.
But the Asian carp is no ordinary fish, and so on Friday, a boardroom in the Peterborough offices of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) is being turned into a temporary war room of sorts. It marks the first time government experts have come together to simulate an invasive-species emergency.
"We've run emergency-preparedness exercises before for influenza outbreaks," said Eric Boysen, director of the MNR's biodiversity branch. "We've done them for ice storms. We said we want to run one for Asian carp."
While the Great Lakes are already home to 180 invasive species, the potential for the next invader to be an Asian carp is spurring both the provincial and federal governments into action.
The spectre of this species of carp — the biggest of which can reach 1.2 metres and 45 kilograms — making its way into the Great Lakes has scientists warning of dire consequences. They say it could gobble up massive amounts of plankton, starving out native species such as trout and walleye.
That would unravel the aquatic food web and threaten the region's $7 billion fishing industry, and on the Ontario side, a commercial fishery worth up to $215 million a year.
Carp breach barriers in U.S. waters
South of the border, most of the concern has centred on waterways in and around Chicago leading to Lake Michigan. Two types of Asian carp — bighead and silver — have been found in those waters after slowly but surely migrating up the Mississippi River.
The fast-growing and fast-breeding fish were introduced to control algae in Arkansas aquaculture ponds in the 1970s, but flooding in the early 1990s allowed them to spread throughout the Mississippi watershed.
"We have to have a plan," says Boysen. "Asian carp will be a game changer in the ecosystem."
Asian Carp invasion drills
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when the guy gets smoked in the face but damn these fish have a lot of energy and can really jump
