In 2008, the Bush Administration imposed a plan that allows these lethal dams to continue killing up to 90% of some Snake River salmon runs. Earthjustice challenged the plan in court soon after it was issued, and now the Obama administration is conducting a 60-day review of that plan; providing some extra time to explore a way to resolve this long-running controversy.
Wild salmon and steelhead of the Columbia and Snake Rivers connect coastal and river communities from California to Alaska and inland as far as Idaho and Nevada. Earthjustice has been in court for over a decade fighting on behalf of fishermen and conservationists to protect and restore this endangered national treasure.
Working together, NOAA, CEQ, and the Corps can lead efforts to restore these vital wild salmon runs and make local communities whole again by bringing together key stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest to craft an effective, legal, and science-based blueprint to resolve this long-standing controversy in a way that produces healthy salmon populations, sustainable new jobs, healthy economies, an improved transportation system, and clean and affordable energy.
The recovery of the Snake River salmon runs is especially critical because these fish migrate the furthest, past the most dams, and yet have access to the largest area of unspoiled spawning habitat of any Columbia Basin salmon -- millions of acres of cool, high-elevation wilderness in central Idaho and northwest Oregon. This wild salmon refuge will be critical as the effects of global warming impact the west.
In announcing his preliminary conclusions about the Bush salmon plan, U.S. District Court Judge James Redden warned that "Federal Defendants have spent the better part of the last decade treading water, and avoiding their obligations under the Endangered Species Act. . . . We simply cannot afford to waste another decade."
The June sucker, which is known to live only in Utah Lake and its tributaries, has been listed as an endangered species since 1986, when biologists estimated there were fewer than 1,000 left.
When carp feed along the lake bottom, they rip out the weeds, which provide important hiding places for young June suckers. Without them, the suckers are easy pickings for hungry predators such as bass and walleye.
So people local to that area want to kill the Carp.
Some people even dream of converting them into biofuels.
"How cool would it be to be driving a car powered by carp?" said Cassie Mellon, a fish biologist with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
I don't know if it will be cool or not, in fact I imagine it would smell worse than normal gasoline. Bleck!
Or you could catch them and eat them....if you want to poison yourself.
In 2006, state officials warned against eating too much carp from Utah Lake because of carcinogens. PCB levels in the fish exceeded Environmental Protection Agency standards.
Researchers are evaluating ways to remove the toxic PCBs from liquefied carp so the fish meet consumption guidelines.
