Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 14 august 2019

In this July 19, 2019, file photo, protesters continue their opposi-
tion vigil against the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope
at Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Associated Press
Students protesting In this June 13, 2012, file photo, Asian carp, jolted by an electric current from a research boat,

jump from the Illinois River near Havana, Ill.
Hawaii telescope can Associated Press

study remotely Study: Asian carp could find
plenty of food in Lake Michigan

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — Uni- waiian religion, mythology,
versity of Hawaii students culture and language, Pa- By JOHN FLESHER sewage lagoons and fish gan team said earlier stud-
protesting the construction cific Island literature, busi- AP Environmental Writer farms. They escaped into ies underestimated the
of a $1.4 billion telescope ness, creative writing, and TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) the Mississippi River and carps' dietary flexibility.
are expected to have class philosophy. Nontraditional — Asian carp are likely have migrated northward, They have shown a will-
options allowing them to classroom environments, to find enough food to branching into dozens of ingness to feed on other
remain on the mountain, a like distance learning, on- spread farther if they es- tributaries. organic material drifting
report said. line classes and research tablish breeding popula- Prolific breeders and vora- in the water column — in-
The plan to start construc- field work, are common tions in Lake Michigan, rein- cious eaters, the invaders cluding excrement from
tion of the Thirty Meter across UH campuses, said forcing the importance of compete with native fish the mussels, Alsip said.
Telescope on the Big Is- spokesman Dan Meisen- preventing the invasive fish for food and habitat. They He and his colleagues
land has been thwarted zahl. Justina Mattos, an as- from gaining a foothold, have become the primary modeled levels of food
for more than three weeks sistant professor of perform- scientists said in a paper re- fish species in the Illinois availability and water tem-
by a group of Native Ha- ing arts at UH-Hilo, is one of leased Monday. River, which forms part of peratures to estimate the
waiian activists who say the educators offering a re- A study led by Univer- an aquatic pathway that well-being of bighead and
the construction will further mote course. Teachers can sity of Michigan research- leads to Lake Michigan silver carp when eating
desecrate a mountain that create independent study ers found that despite a through a Chicago-area mixtures of plankton and
already has more than a courses during the univer- drop-off in plankton, the network of rivers and ca- non-living organic mate-
dozen observatories. sity add/drop period, while tiny plants and animals on nals. rial, or "detritus," at different
A list of more than 200 students can also earn which bighead and silver Authorities have long de- depths.
courses students can take credit for doing indepen- carp typically feed, the bated how to keep them They concluded that the
either online or via distance dent projects, Mattos said. lake has enough dietary out of the Great Lakes, lake, with its average depth
learning has become avail- "While I will continue to not options to sustain individual where fishing is a $7 bil- of 280 feet (85 meters), has
able, The Hawaii Tribune- really speak out to one side fish that venture away from lion industry. The U.S. Army enough of the mussels' fe-
Herald reported Monday. or the other, I do feel a per- nutrient-rich shoreline areas Corps of Engineers this year cal pellets to keep the carp
The majority of the remote sonal responsibility to help where most would congre- proposed equipping the from starving and even en-
classes for student demon- enable any of the protec- gate. Brandon Road Lock and able them to grow while
strators are offered through tors who are in college to That improves their pros- Dam near Joliet, Illinois, seeking other fertile terri-
UH-Manoa, while others be able to continue doing pects for colonizing large with noisemakers, electric tory, such as Wisconsin's
are offered by the UH-Hilo what they feel they need sections of Lake Michigan barriers and other deter- Green Bay, Alsip said.
and Hawaii Community to do without impacting and eventually spreading rents at a cost of at least "It definitely increases their
College. their college education," to the other Great Lakes, $778 million. chance of surviving the
Course topics include Ha- Mattos said.q
said Peter Alsip, an ecologi- Some experts have ques- journey," he said. Duane
cal modeling data analyst tioned whether the carp Chapman, a fish biologist
and lead author of the pa- would venture from shal- with the U.S. Geological
per published in the journal low bays and wetland ar- Survey, led previous studies
Freshwater Biology."Our eas into the lake's deeper that raised doubts about
study indicates that the waters, where filter-feeding whether Asian carp could
carp can survive and grow zebra and quagga mussels find enough food in most
in much larger areas of the have coated the bottom- of Lake Michigan. They fo-
lake than previous studies lands and consumed huge cused on the availability
suggested," Alsip said. volumes of plankton and of microscopic plant life in
Asian carp were imported nutrients such as phospho- areas near the surface that
in the late 1960s to gobble rus. could be observed with
up algae in Deep South But the University of Michi- satellite data, he said.q