A request from the state of Michigan to close Chicago-area shipping locks in order to prevent Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan has been turned down by the Supreme Court. There will have to be some other means to prevent the invasive fish from  making their way into the Great Lakes. The locks provide a means of travelling between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes basins.

An official from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Marc Gaden, says there are other options for separating the two bodies of water.

“What we’re really talking about is something a little bigger, something where you take a good, hard look at how water and other goods are moved around in that system and find out if there’s a better way of achieving your transportation goals and also, say, preventing flooding or doing something with large amounts of water,” Gaden says.

The Fishery Commission is hoping experts like engineers, biologists and transportation officials can find a solution. He says the health of the Great Lakes system and its $7 billion fishing industry is at stake.

– From a report by Erin Toner, WUWM, Milwaukee, Wis.