Photo illustration: Rachael Gleason
CHICAGO – A bighead Asian Carp was apprehended Wednesday after breaching a maximum security federal barrier, officials say.
No one was harmed in the capture of the 20-pounder. Officials aren’t sure how the carp escaped, but they say he was just six miles from a clean getaway.
Advocates of the watery prison say it keeps the public safe from the ferocious fish. Opponents say the barrier isn’t a cure, but a band-aid over a larger ecological problem.
Click here for more on how society is putting up with carp.
And click here for the serious side of this story.
There is a clear difference between being panicked and taking swift, decisive action in a crisis. It appears that many who are now in a position to take decisive action on the Asian carp threat are under-reacting, possibly to avoid the appearance of being panicked.
Must we really wait to act until a foreseeable threat becomes an unmitigated disaster? The current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico should make clear that reasonable efforts to avert a crisis, beforehand are far superior to having to clean up after a disastrous event has occurred.
Now is the time to take swift action to close the man-made canal that is putting the entire Great Lakes system in jeopardy – not to wait until the Asian carp have actually invaded the system. I am willing to bet that after an Asian carp infestation is well under way, these same folks will ruefully shake their heads, wring their hands, and ask “why wasn’t action taken, back when we had a chance to prevent this?”
Alas, the world’s greatest repository of fresh water is in the hands of the same folks who would kick the can down the road on offshore oil drilling, arguing "it’s not a disaster yet, so why worry?" Anyone who is not a "ditto-head" disciple will realize that approach is never sensible.