As Asian carp, a group of invasive species of fish, threaten to infiltrate the Great Lakes, University faculty are offering their expert opinions and man hours to help government officials combat the problem.

Faculty members within the School of Natural Resources and Program in the Environment have offered their advice to news outlets, researchers and state, local and federal government leaders and are currently participating in the state’s efforts to lobby President Barack Obama’s administration for help.

The Obama administration announced Monday a $78.5 million plan to control the spread of the invasive species to Lake Michigan, the Associated Press reported.

According to the AP, the plan — called the Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework — has faced criticism for not proposing to completely close the shipping lanes between the carp’s route to Lake Michigan and the lake itself.

According to experts, Asian carp breed quickly and eat plankton that other native species need to survive. The fish, which can weigh up to 60 lbs. when mature, can also injure boaters and anglers when they leap from the water.

Experts and officials are mainly concerned about the fish entering Lake Michigan through a sanitation waterway in Chicago, which connects the lake to the Mississippi River drainage.

The main measure built to prevent the fish from entering the Great Lakes was an attempt in 2009 to strengthen an electrical barrier built in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Jim Diana, director of the Michigan Sea Grant College Program and professor of fisheries and aquaculture in the School of Natural Resources, studied Asian carp extensively in China before they were discovered in Lake Michigan.

Diana said he was unable to estimate how many fish entering the lake would allow a population to start, but that it’s important to keep the carp from moving into the lake.

“What number of fish is necessary to actually seed the lake and get a population growing, I don’t think anybody could tell you,” Diana said.

Though many factors are unclear, Diana said the principle actors like the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency shouldn’t wait for the problem to increase in severity.

“We don’t really know what the end result will be if they’re introduced in large enough breeding populations to be successful, but we shouldn’t test that,” he said.

Marc Gaden, communications director and legislative liaison for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, has been working on the issue’s policy side for 10 years and says pursuing completion of the new barrier is a slow legislative process.

“We had to get the original barrier authorized, we had to get the newer, bigger, stronger one authorized in 2007, and then we had to get the funding for it, which took lobbying Congress,” said Gaden, who is also an adjunct professor in the School of Natural Resources and lecturer in the Program in the Environment.

“You can see that things aren’t moving at the speed of light. Meanwhile, the fish are swimming toward the lake,” Gaden said.