President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday to expedite the construction of a system of barriers to stop the migration of Asian carp into the Great Lakes Basin.
For years, the large fish, which can weigh more than 100 pounds, have been steadily making their way north from the southeastern United States through streams, rivers, and lakes, according to a fact sheet summarizing the memorandum.
How it got to the Great Lakes region remains uncertain. One theory postulates that floods washed the fish out of breeding ponds on fish farms in the central Midwest.
Asian carp is considered an invasive species that poses great danger to the ecosystem of the Great Lakes, the largest source of fresh surface water in the world. Voraciously eating everything from plant life to other fish, they outcompete and soon outbreed such native species as walleye, yellow perch, and lake whitefish to near extinction….