Dead invasive silver carp removed from the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal

August 27, 2024

Contact:
Illinois Department of Natural Resource
Jayette Bolinski
Jayette.Bolinski@illinois.gov

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Janet Lebson
Janet_Lebson@fws.gov

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Invasive Carp Regional Coordinating Committee today announced the removal of a dead invasive silver carp from the Lockport Pool below the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers electric dispersal barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The location where the fish was found is approximately 30 miles from Lake Michigan.

The dead invasive silver carp was discovered downstream of the Illinois Route 7/West Ninth Street Bridge on August 22 by a fisheries crew from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducting routine invasive carp sampling. The fish was 22 inches in length; however, a weight could not be determined due to decay. The otolith, or fish ear bone, was removed for microchemistry analysis to determine the origin of the fish.

Discovery of the dead invasive silver carp prompted additional sampling by agency crews August 22-23 in the vicinity of where the carcass was discovered to rule out the presence of live invasive carp. Although the source of the fish is unknown, dead invasive carp are sometimes carried long distances by barges and then jettisoned by barge crew members. Follow-up sampling conducted by Monitoring and Response Work Group agencies totaling 292 minutes of electrofishing yielded no invasive carp in the vicinity. In addition, the bi-annual Seasonal Intensive Monitoring in the Chicago Area Waterway System, which includes electrofishing, netting and eDNA sampling, is scheduled to commence in late September.