The Asian Carp first entered the Mississippi River system in the early 1990s and are now, twenty years later, within striking distance of Lake Michigan.

• What has happened in these waterways since the Asian Carp got in?
• Can what happened in these waterways happen in Lake Erie?
• What is being done to prevent Asian Carp from getting into Lake Michigan?

Lesson Plan

Additional Resources

Student Investigation Resources:

• Great 1993 Flood of the Mississippi River - NASA Earth Observatory
• Mississippi River Map - Wikipedia image
• GL1-Great Lake Watershed Map (PDF) - Ohio Department of Natural Resources
• USGS Graphical Fish Database Browser - United States Geological Survey (USGS)
• "Weird True & Freaky: Asian Carp Invasion" - Animal Planet Videos

Supplemental Resources:

• Asian Carp in the News! - Google News
• Big Head Carp Interactive Map - U.S. Geological Survey
• Asian Carp Control Strategies - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Aquatic Invasions (PDF) - The Great Lakes Commission
• Great Lakes in My World online curriculum - Alliance for the Great Lakes
• Principles for Lake Erie Literacy - Ohio Division of Natural Resources
• Interactive Google Map - This interactive map points out the locations of positive tests for the presence of Asian Carp in the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal.



Video Supplements (click on the links below to view additional footage not included in the program):

• Gill netting in Lake Erie- In this segment, Jeff Tyson and Jason Ross from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources take Dante out onto Lake Erie to show him how gill netting is used as a sampling technique.