Carp threat unites nations

GREAT LAKES: FEAR FISH WILL CAUSE DEVASTATION

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NETTING. A Fisheries and Oceans Canada team patrols Grand River in Ontario recently in search of invasive grass carp specimens introduced in the United States in the '70s.

Finally, something to unite President Donald Trump, his Democratic opponents and the Canadians he's threatening to annex: a ferociously hungry carp.

Invasive carp, sometimes called Asian carp, were introduced in the United States in the '70s. And they've never stopped spreading - and eating everything in their path - since.

"They're eating machines," said Trisiah Tugade, an aquatic biologist with Canada's Invasive Carp Programme, as she and her team glided along the Grand River - a Lake Erie tributary - looking for fish that specialists fear will devastate the Great Lakes.

Because they can eat up 40% of their bodyweight daily, invasive carp were initially seen as a tool to control nuisance algae in confined areas, like aquaculture ponds.

But they escaped, likely during floods, and made their way north, including through the Illinois River. That has raised the spectre of the devastating eater establishing itself in the Great Lakes, the world's largest freshwater system by surface area.