SUMMER OF THE FRANKENFISH, PART TWO

A giant predator is fished out of Park Dist. lagoon (GARY WISBY, June 10, 2003, Chicago Sun-Times)

To the alarm of state conservation officials, the first confirmed Asian bighead carp has been caught in Chicago.

A surprised fisherman pulled the 38-pound fish out of the lagoon in McKinley Park, at Pershing and Damen.

State and federal agencies are spending millions in an effort to keep the dreaded Asian carp from getting into Lake Michigan and then the other Great Lakes.

The McKinley Park lagoon isn't connected to the lake. "But if somebody put it there, they could easily put it in Lake Michigan," said Tom Trudeau, fisheries program administrator for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

"Where else have the carp been put? If they survive and reproduce [in the lake], it neutralizes all the efforts to try and keep them out of the Great Lakes."

Trudeau speculated that the fish was dropped into the McKinley Park lagoon in keeping with the custom, practiced by some Asians, "that for every fish you eat, you release one."

Why not switch to the American custom? For every fish you eat you SuperSize the fries and the shake. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 10, 2003 12:56 PM