U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Jerrold Federer (left) stands ready to net fish with La Crosse FRO biologist Heidi Keuler, while a camerman from the NHK Japanese television network (center) films the electrofishing efforts to detect Asian carp in the Des Plaines River, near Joliet, Illinois. - Courtesy photo by David Hirsch

Staff from the La Crosse FRO led surveillance efforts for Asian carps in the Des Plaines River near Joliet, Illinois, in mid-August.  With additional assistance provided by personnel from the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit in Chicago, trammel nets and electrofishing gear were used in efforts to capture or detect the presence of Asian carps at several sites located here in the Brandon Road Pool. 

No Asian carp species were caught or observed at any of the survey sites.  These Service-led efforts completed surveillance requirements for the month to determine whether Asian carps are approaching any closer to an electrical barrier, located upstream at river mile 296 in the Lockport Pool near Romeoville, which is designed to prevent these fish from entering Lake Michigan. 

Bighead carp and silver carp are currently known to be as far upstream as river mile 281 in the Dresden Island Pool and river mile 228 in the Peoria Pool, respectively. 

The responsibility for conducting monthly surveillance for Asian carps is shared and rotates among the Service, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and the Illinois Natural History Survey.