Political Quotes

“23 years ago--that is quite a few years--I heard about a threat to the future of the Great Lakes. The threat turned out to be a fish. Yes, a fish. This fish was imported from somewhere in Asia--we believe China--by some people in the United States who believed that it could be raised in confinement ponds and sold for a profit. Whether that was ever a possibility, I don't know, but the problem is that the area where they chose to have the confinement ponds was flooded. And when it was flooded, this new invasive species, this new fish, found its way into the Mississippi River and started propagating. It was a voracious fish. It didn't leave much room or food for other fish in the area. It made its way into the Mississippi River and, heading north, hit the Illinois River and headed for Lake Michigan, the Great Lakes. It was then that they sounded an alarm and said if this fish ever becomes commonplace in the Great Lakes, it will destroy it as a fishery and change it forever. So I decided 23 years ago to call on the experts and ask them: What can we do to stop it? They weren't sure.”