Collaborate
Collaborative Actions within the U.S. Waters of the Great Lakes
The actions of the Invasive Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ICRCC) to protect the Great Lakes basin from invasive carp reflect implementation of a broader, national approach in the United States to address the threat. Interagency partnerships in all major sub-basins within the Mississippi River basin are working together to address the threat of invasive carp.
Collaborative Actions within the Mississippi River Basin
Since 2015, the Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Association, known as MICRA, has coordinated invasive carp management actions through partnerships of state, federal and nongovernmental organizations in the Mississippi River basin. These interagency invasive carp partnerships include:
- The Upper Mississippi River sub-basin
- Missouri River sub-basin
- Arkansas-Red-White River sub-basin
- Lower Mississippi River sub-basin
- Tennessee-Cumberland River sub-basin
- Ohio River sub-basin
Map of sub-basins. Illustration by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
International Collaboration
Federal, provincial and state agencies from the U.S. and Canada, and non-governmental partners continue to increase the network of collaboration across jurisdictional and basin watershed boundaries to address the threat on a broader bi-national scale.
U.S. and Canadian resource agencies in the Lake Erie basin have identified the threat of invasive grass carp as a high priority requiring focused and aggressive assessment and control. A suite of actions have been proposed and implemented, building on existing efforts within the Lake Erie basin:
- In 2016, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, in collaboration with Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, U.S. Geological Survey, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, initiated the development of an Adaptive Management Framework for Grass Carp Control in Lake Erie. The framework led the binational Lake Erie Committee to adopt a 5-year adaptive response strategy to reduce the threat of grass carp through coordinated action.
- Since 2016, research and agency removal actions have helped identify key areas of focus to reduce the threat of grass carp to Lake Erie. The Lake Erie Committee is using strike, or response, teams to target these areas for removal of adult grass carp and for egg sampling.
- State, provincial, and federal agencies in the U.S. and Canada have collaborated to develop and implement techniques for grass carp removal in Lake Erie.