Echo

It’s 11:55 p.m.; Do you know where your Asian carp are?

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Longtime environment writer Jeff Alexander just launched a nifty feature to track the Asian carp crisis. It’s modeled after the Doomsday Clock that scientists created in the 1940s to track how the world inched toward nuclear holocaust. The Asian Carp Doomsday Clock features hands made of images of bighead and silver carp – two of the species biologists and others fear could devastate the Great Lakes ecosystem. Jeff does a nice round up of a week’s worth of bad news along the carp Maginot Line to justify setting the hands at a mere five minutes before midnight. When the original Doomsday Clock was launched in 1947, it was set at seven minutes to midnight.

Echo

Michigan tribe battles global corporation

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Ten years ago, when an international mining company arrived near the shores of Lake Superior to burrow a mile under the Earth and pull metals out of ore, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community had to stand for its rights and its water.

Echo

Map of Great Lakes currents helps lake lovers stay safe

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An animated map of Great Lakes currents can help lake-goers interpret the speed and direction of currents in any location. “We are trying to provide information so people can learn about circulation in the lakes and get a sense for how frequently it changes,” said David Schwab, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The administration recently released the map to provide information that is a little less technical, Schwab said. Users can either view the surface current map or the depth-averaged current map. Surface currents change frequently due to wind conditions, Schwab said.

Echo

Carp czar meets in Chicago; here’s Gary Wilson’s take

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The federal government’s carp czar is holding a public meeting in Chicago today to discuss efforts to prevent Asian carp from establishing in the Great Lakes. Here’s what Great Lakes Echo’s Gary Wilson had to say about the issue on WMUK in Kalamazoo, Mich. The White House Council on Environmental Quality Asian Carp Director John Goss is leading the meeting of the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee.  Information at the bottom of this post explains how to participate at 2 p.m. Central time (3 p.m. Eastern) via webcast.