Political Quotes

“I rise today with a very urgent and critical situation from my home State and the home State of the Presiding Officer and for our Great Lakes in general. We are just finding out today that a commercial fisherman, contracted by the government to do routine sampling of areas leading into the Great Lakes and Lake Michigan, caught a 34-inch, 20-pound Asian carp in Lake Calumet, approximately 6 miles downstream from Lake Michigan, past the barriers, and on its way to Lake Michigan. This is the first Asian carp found past the electric barriers. It represents a very serious risk to the Great Lakes' ecosystem and, frankly, to our way of life in the Great Lakes region. These fish are huge, and they are able to invade the Great Lakes. They could easily destroy our $7 billion fishing industry and our $16 billion recreational boating industry. Invasive species in the Great Lakes have already contributed to significant declines in fish populations. The Asian carp could completely unwind the food chain, with devastating effects for our existing fish populations. We heard in testimony before my Subcommittee on Water and Power that these fish, which can get up to 90 or 100 pounds, effectively have no stomach. They eat all the time. They eat up everything in the food chain, leaving other fish to die throughout the Great Lakes. It is extremely serious.”