By Kevin Lee    Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD  –  Illinois is turning to supermarkets, restaurants and dining tables halfway around the world to help solve its Asian Carp problem.

Gov. Pat Quinn announced on Tuesday that the state will team with Chinese meat processing company Beijing Zhuochen Animal Husbandry Company and Illinois-based Big River Fish Corporation to harvest 30 million pounds of carp from Illinois rivers and waterways.

Quinn is hoping that the public-private partnership will diminish the threat of the voracious Asian carp, which threatens the ecosystem of the Great Lakes and its estimated $7 billion commercial and sport fishing industry.

"If you can't beat them, you eat them," the governor said. "And that's what the battle is all about. We have too many Asian Carp in the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. We don't want the Asian Carp to get into the Great Lakes."

Under the agreement, Big River will use its fishery in Pearl, Ill., to process, package and ship carp to Zhuochen for resale. The carp is a much more popular culinary fish in China and other parts of Asia than in the U.S.

The state through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity will invest $2 million in capital funds to help Big River retrofit its existing fishery in Pearl, as well as expand to new production facilities in Pittsfield.

The state estimates that the expanded fishing production will directly create 61 new jobs and spur growth of 120 other jobs.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has already contracted with commercial fisherman to start removing Asian Carp in the Illinois River.

"The high quality and great taste of the wild Asian carp from the state of Illinois has exceeded our expectations," said Lian Chang, Chairman of the Beijing Zhuochen Animal Husbandry, through a translator. "We are very confident that the market in China for this Asian Carp in Illinois is also going to exceed expectations."

Jack Darin, director of the Sierra Club in Illinois, said shipping carp to China might help stem the northbound flow of the fish towards the Great Lakes.

"So, even if there is little chance of fishing them entirely out of the Illinois River, it may well be possible to make a dent in their population, and in the migration pressure," Darin said in a statement. "It also could be another reason to keep cleaning up the Illinois River, if the nation's most populous country is developing a taste for fish harvested from it."

 The term "Asian Carp" refers to several different species of carp. The Bighead carp and Silver carp are the two species associated with the threat to the Great Lakes.

Both species have an average weight of 30 to 40 pounds and are voracious eaters. Held in captivity in the 1980s, the carp escaped into the Mississippi and Illinois River systems, crowding out native species by consuming their food sources and moving north towards the Great Lakes.

Federal officials installed an electric barrier system in Romeoville to block Asian Carp from entering into Chicago-area shipping locks and waterways.

But last month, a Bighead Asian carp was found in Lake Calumet, which is connected to the Great Lakes system. The Bighead carp is the first physical specimen found beyond the the electric barrier system.

Commercial fishing crews, state officials and federal officials are expected to monitor Chicago waterways for Asian Carp throughout this month.