MDNRE Draft Asian Carps Control Plan For Michigan

Oct 27: Charged with developing a draft plan for Michigan to address potential monitoring and assessment needs for Asian carps, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (MDNRE) Fisheries Division Management Team quietly released their report. MDNRE indicates that the plan is not intended as a rapid response plan, but rather as the beginning of a comprehensive strategy for addressing the threat of Asian carps dispersing, or being introduced, into Michigan waters. According to an announcement posted on the Asian Carp Regional Coordination Committee (ACRCC) website, the questions the Fisheries Division Asian Carps Working Group attempt to address in the draft plan include the following:

• What does the Department need to do to adequately address the threat of Asian carp species invading Michigan waters? 
• What sampling strategies are appropriate in addressing this threat? 
• What should our response be if Asian carps, either isolated individuals or abundant populations, are detected in Michigan waters?
• What are the pros and cons of various possible management strategies?
• What types of resources (both financial and human) are necessary to adequately address this threat? 

    The Fisheries Division Asian Carps Working Group ((D. Clapp, J. Mistak, K. Smith, M. Tonello) that developed the draft plan said, "Within this report, common strategies are combined under five goals: prevention, communication, detection, assessment, and management. These goals are presented in what our group feels to be the priority order for management action. Prevention and communication are of immediate importance. If Asian carps are detected in Michigan waters, then we will be forced to undertake assessment and management actions. We restricted ourselves almost entirely to analysis and documentation of strategies and actions that could be directly implemented by MDNRE and other Michigan agency staff. So, while our group feels that implementing ecological separation (for example, between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River system) is probably the strategy with the highest likelihood of success, we did not directly include this as a strategy within our plan since the MDNRE cannot independently implement separation. Likewise, while political action has some likelihood of success in preventing Asian carps from reaching Michigan, such action is not directly within our scope of authority. . .

 

    "Our group feels that the Department should begin as soon as possible to act on the recommendations outlined in this report. To facilitate such action, we have highlighted the following strategies that our group feels are most critical to immediately addressing the threat of introduction of Asian carps to Michigan waters." Among the recommendations to be implemented immediately are the formation of a Michigan Asian Carps Task Group, with initial membership coming from MDNRE and Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA), the launch of a public education campaign and quick implementation of an effective surveillance plan.

 

    Access the announcement (click here). Access the MDNRE 69-page proposed plan (click here).