http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/lawmaker-leads-push-for-greater-regulation-of-imported-species-9h5kbco-155993675.html
I'm curious what, if any effect the details of this proposed law would have on the hobby.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal- An East Coast lawmaker is leading a bipartisan push to increase federal import regulations of potentially dangerous species, a move conservation groups say could make it much more difficult for the next Asian carp to colonize U.S. waters.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday introduced the Invasive Fish and Wildlife Protection Act of 2012, which would give the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service greater authority to identify potential troublemakers and block their importation.
"If this legislation had been introduced decades ago, species like bighead and silver carp would have been banned before the first shipment," said Jennifer Nalbone of the conservation group Great Lakes United. "We have a lesson to learn from the Asian carp crisis; it's time to put an updated, proactive approach in place. Our best defense is to screen out potential invaders from imports in the first place."
Four species of Asian carp were legally imported to the U.S. decades ago by federal researchers as well as private fish farmers. The fish, voracious feeders brought to the U.S. to clean fish farm ponds and used in federally funded sewage treatment experiments, escaped their containment ponds soon after their arrival and are now swimming in waters across the Mississippi River basin. Two species, bighead and silver carp, are poised to invade the Great Lakes by swimming up the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. An electric fish barrier on the canal, located about 30 miles from Chicago's Lake Michigan shoreline, is the last line of defense for the Great Lakes.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates $204 million has been spent since 1998 to keep the fish out of the Great Lakes, according to Great Lakes United.
The Fish and Wildlife Service's best tool to fight invasive species at the moment is the Lacey Act, a law that is more than 100 years old and one conservationists say is woefully inadequate in today's environment. The law allows the federal government to ban the importation and interstate transport of any species it lists as "injurious," but the problem is that listing typically doesn't happen until a species is already loose on the continent. The new law would give the Fish and Wildlife Service greater authority to act before a species is imported.
"As proactive tool to prevent the next invasion (the Lacey Act) is almost useless, because by time you can apply the Lacey Act to an organism, the organism is already out there and spreading," said Marc Gaden, spokesman for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
Peter Jenkins, spokesman for the National Environmental Coalition, said: "The existing 112-year-old regulatory process is very slow and utterly inadequate for the massive trade of live wild animals that is occurring in the 21st century. It's like continuing to use a musket in the age of unmanned drones."
There is growing awareness that the damage done by invasive species is as much an economic issue as it is an environmental one. A report released by the Nature Conservancy on Thursday says just one invasive species, the pipe-clogging zebra mussel, costs individual water treatment plants an average of about $353,000 annually. Zebra mussels were brought into the region more than two decades ago by ocean freighters traveling up the St. Lawrence Seaway.
"Some may think that $353,000 doesn't sound like much in the larger context of business costs, but when you consider that we have 381 water treatment facilities across the (Great Lakes) basin, those numbers add up quickly," said Alex Rosaen, a consultant at the Anderson Economic Group, and the primary author of the report. "That means the region is spending over $100 million annually on managing a pest infestation that we might have been able to prevent."
I'm curious what, if any effect the details of this proposed law would have on the hobby.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal- An East Coast lawmaker is leading a bipartisan push to increase federal import regulations of potentially dangerous species, a move conservation groups say could make it much more difficult for the next Asian carp to colonize U.S. waters.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday introduced the Invasive Fish and Wildlife Protection Act of 2012, which would give the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service greater authority to identify potential troublemakers and block their importation.
"If this legislation had been introduced decades ago, species like bighead and silver carp would have been banned before the first shipment," said Jennifer Nalbone of the conservation group Great Lakes United. "We have a lesson to learn from the Asian carp crisis; it's time to put an updated, proactive approach in place. Our best defense is to screen out potential invaders from imports in the first place."
Four species of Asian carp were legally imported to the U.S. decades ago by federal researchers as well as private fish farmers. The fish, voracious feeders brought to the U.S. to clean fish farm ponds and used in federally funded sewage treatment experiments, escaped their containment ponds soon after their arrival and are now swimming in waters across the Mississippi River basin. Two species, bighead and silver carp, are poised to invade the Great Lakes by swimming up the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. An electric fish barrier on the canal, located about 30 miles from Chicago's Lake Michigan shoreline, is the last line of defense for the Great Lakes.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates $204 million has been spent since 1998 to keep the fish out of the Great Lakes, according to Great Lakes United.
The Fish and Wildlife Service's best tool to fight invasive species at the moment is the Lacey Act, a law that is more than 100 years old and one conservationists say is woefully inadequate in today's environment. The law allows the federal government to ban the importation and interstate transport of any species it lists as "injurious," but the problem is that listing typically doesn't happen until a species is already loose on the continent. The new law would give the Fish and Wildlife Service greater authority to act before a species is imported.
"As proactive tool to prevent the next invasion (the Lacey Act) is almost useless, because by time you can apply the Lacey Act to an organism, the organism is already out there and spreading," said Marc Gaden, spokesman for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
Peter Jenkins, spokesman for the National Environmental Coalition, said: "The existing 112-year-old regulatory process is very slow and utterly inadequate for the massive trade of live wild animals that is occurring in the 21st century. It's like continuing to use a musket in the age of unmanned drones."
There is growing awareness that the damage done by invasive species is as much an economic issue as it is an environmental one. A report released by the Nature Conservancy on Thursday says just one invasive species, the pipe-clogging zebra mussel, costs individual water treatment plants an average of about $353,000 annually. Zebra mussels were brought into the region more than two decades ago by ocean freighters traveling up the St. Lawrence Seaway.
"Some may think that $353,000 doesn't sound like much in the larger context of business costs, but when you consider that we have 381 water treatment facilities across the (Great Lakes) basin, those numbers add up quickly," said Alex Rosaen, a consultant at the Anderson Economic Group, and the primary author of the report. "That means the region is spending over $100 million annually on managing a pest infestation that we might have been able to prevent."
