Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee Announces Illinois River Asian Carp Meeting

The Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee has announced an upcoming meeting on the topic of "Fishing Down the Bighead and Silver Carps: Reducing the Risk of Invasion to the Great Lakes." The meeting will include an overview of Asian Carp prevalence in the Lower Illinois River and the possibilities of their control in that River stretch.

The meeting, co-hosted by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Southern Illinois University will be held at the Northwest Indiana Forum, 6100 Southport Road, Portage, Indiana, on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, from 8:30 AM – noon (Central Time), and will also be webcast live at https://www.mymeetings.com/tetratech/join/ (Conference number: PG2535005; Passcode: ASIAN CARP; audio available by calling 888-603-8914).

The meeting agenda consists of:
 
1.  Introductions – Illinois Department of Natural Resources
2.  Efficacy of Control in the Lower Illinois River – Dr. James Garvey, Southern Illinois University

• Overview 
• Immigration of Asian carp and movement 
• Density and biomass of large fish in the lower Illinois River; 
• Ecosystem impact 
• Nutrition 
• Contaminants 
• Marketing research 
• Is control possible? 
• The fishing experiment

3.  Questions and Answers

The Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee is a group of 22 federal, state, local and private entities whose goal is to create a "sustainable Asian carp control program to prevent introduction and implement actions to protect and maintain the integrity and safety of the Great Lakes ecosystem from an Asian carp invasion via all viable pathways."