WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm called Tuesday for a White House summit on Asian carp.
Granholm asked President Barack Obama to intervene as the U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to order the closing of lock gates in the Chicago River.
"We cannot allow carp into the Great Lakes," Granholm said. "It will destroy our Great Lakes fisheries, our fisheries, the economy. It has to be stopped and it is urgent."
The carp got into the Mississippi and its tributaries several decades ago through escapes from fish farms. Scientists fear the fish, voracious eaters, could wipe out many of the fish species now in the Great Lakes.
Michigan, New York, Minnesota and Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Ontario are trying to reopen a 1922 lawsuit over the engineering of the Chicago River to connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. The National Resources Defense Council said the Supreme Court's refusal to grant a temporary injunction closing off the river does mean the lawsuit is doomed.
