LANSING, MI -- The state of Michigan has a million bucks for whomever can figure out a way to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

Gov. Rick Snyder made the announcement in his State of the State address in January, calling on the "brightest minds in our country to come together with innovative ideas" about how to stop the advance of plankton-gobbling bighead and silver carp up the Chicago waterway system.

The Department of Natural Resources is coordinating the Carp Prize, an idea that senior DNR staff say the governor personally developed himself.

"He came up with this idea and it was legislatively supported, so it was put in the budget for this year," said Tammy Newcomb, DNR senior water policy advisor.

"There's been a ton of response."

Officially, the "carp challenge" has yet to be launched. There's a website where people can sign-up for updates on official parameters and important dates. The state has contracted with InnoCentive, a crowdsourcing firm that awards cash for solving complex engineering, science, business and government problems.

InnoCentive would administer the challenge, judge and award the prizes or prizes. The contest is expected to go live this summer. Most of the $1 million will go toward the winning idea, or ideas. Some will be used to develop the contest.

Newcomb said the goal is unique ideas and outside-the-box thinking about ways to keep Asian bighead and silver carp from reaching the Great Lakes, where they present a threat to an existing $7 billion sport fishing industry because the voracious fish, known for leaping out of the water when frightened, would outcompete native species for food.

"It's exploring the margins for ideas that a typical 'fish person' or engineer would overlook, but which actually has promise," she said. "Maybe it's a different way to deploy electricity or some other kind of fish deterrent."

Currently, the carp are about 50 miles from Lake Michigan, roughly 10 miles south of a series of electric barriers in the Chicago Area Waterway System that environmental groups don't consider to be strong enough protection because studies show that barge traffic can shuttle fish through unharmed.

A tentative plan to strengthen a choke point on the Des Plaines River, the Brandon Road Lock & Dam, which is just upstream from the leading edge of the adult carp population, has become a flash point for debate about what measures should be taken to control the fish movement after the White House ordered a delay of the plan release in February.

The stalled plan has exposed a rift in the Great Lakes delegation in Congress, with Michigan leading a call for release and Illinois leading the call for delay.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources Asian carp biologist Kevin Irons said the carp leading edge is holding at the Dresden Island Pool in the Illinois River, near the mouth of the Kankakee River west of I-55.

The Illinois DNR has caught about three dozen carp above I-55, but Irons said the carp aren't quite storming the gates at Brandon Road.

The fish will approach the dam, but they don't linger, he said.

"There's something in the water that we're just now beginning to understand" near Brandon Road that the fish don't like, Irons said.

The U.S. Geological Survey is studying whether chemicals in the water, or some other natural bacteria of some kind is triggering a stress gene, he said.

One theory is the fish like the mix of water from incoming tributaries at the Dresden Pool and are somewhat content for the time being, Irons said.

The Illinois DNR has had success reducing the population by mass fishing, he said. More than five million pounds of Asian carp have been harvested from the upper Illinois River, he said. Some fish are marketed for profit, others are used for pet food and crop fertilizer depending on where they are caught.

The focus is on fishing out the downriver population below Starved Rock State Park to drop the number of fish approaching Brandon Road, Irons said.

A large concern is a reproducing population in the upper river reaches. Juvenile fish have been found at Starved Rock in 2015 and some larval carp were found at Dresden, which Irons said were the same size and age as fish 150 miles downriver.

"I can't explain it. They could have come from spawning, but it's not likely."

Illinois is aware of Michigan's carp challenge and although Michigan has no authority to mandate any particular technique or approach be taken by another state or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "we don't want to pass up good knowledge," Irons said.

Newcomb said the goal with the challenge is to generate ideas that would stop the carp but which would not impede commercial waterway traffic.

Environment groups have pushed a hydrological separation of the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins, a solution which has been opposed by Illinois out of concern it could impact movement of goods through Chicago.

"Ideally, this idea is something that could be used in the Chicago waterway system or any of the other waterways in the nation that are experiencing rapid movement of bighead and silver carp," said Newcomb. "Maybe we get several good ideas that can be followed-up with additional investment, direction or support in some way."

Irons said Illinois "welcomes resources being spent to consider all the possibilities."

"When we get a novel idea, we'll give it full and appropriate consideration," he said. "If we can't use us, well, there are aquatic nuisance species around the world. If it doesn't work in Chicago, there may be other situations it may be appropriate."