Those poor snakehead fish…nobody loves them. But when did genocide become ethical???
I believe aquarists keep them when they are smaller.
Well, Australia had it coming, trying to kick Bart with a boot!
I just hope the frogs are okay.
This action is hardly genocide. The fish are native to China. A small population which was relocated by humans and is doing serious damage to the local ecology being wiped out is not analogous to genocide. The primary differentiating factor is that the county intends to STOP trying to kill snake-head fish once all the ones in this locale are dealt with.
A few facts you may not know about these fish.
- The species have been reported to travel some distance over land.(Although some experts doubt this means more than wallowing in extremely shallow water and rolling/flopping from place to place)
- They are extremely predatory even from a young age.
- They can grow to sizes of three feet and weigh up to 15 pounds.
- They can, and have attacked humans.
- They can live out of the water for up to three days. That’s enough time to wiggle their way to another aquatic ecosystem.
Even if they are currently contained they are a serious threat to all the marine ecology in the area. They can even prove to be a menace to humans. If someone rounded up a few hyenas to give to a friend as pets, then changed their mind and let them loose in your local park would you champion them? What if they bred in the woods of the park until they were too numerous for the wildlife in the woods, rabbits, birds, rodents, etc., to sustain them and decided to travel out in search of more hunting grounds? Would you still say that it was “genocide” to eliminate them before they did even more harm?
I don’t think it’s any such thing. It’s correcting an unfortunate mistake made by a person who was probably unaware of the consequences of their actions. The info on Australia gives an EXCELLENT example of what happens to ecological systems when mankind transplants non-native animals. I see nothing wrong with eliminating this group of snake-heads. The species is in no danger of being wiped out. They live on two other continents(Africa and Asia). One may wish to simply capture them and return them to their natural habitats in Asia or Africa, but unless someone is willing to pay money to have them all rounded up and shippped humanely, then their threat is best neutralized by killing them.
Enjoy,
Steven
What Mtgman said.
For the record, prairie dogs are locally extinct. For various reasons, farmers and ranchers have extirpated them, though recent research refutes the logic behind getting rid of them. In some areas, they are being experimentally reintroduced. Removal has had the secondary effect of increasing predation of burrowing owls by birds of prey, coyotes, etc.
If I may rant for a second, this isn’t about sympathy for a (relatively) few fish, and their feelings, or whatever. I’m not saying we should have conservation biologists go to work on the individual fish with pliers and a blowtorch, but they should be extirpated from the North American continent quickly and efficiently. The longer we wait, the more impossible it will be, as they breed and spread.
Ah yes, back to my rant. I’m glad to see that PETA is supporting eradication of snakeheads. I don’t know whether it was PETA or not, but some animal rights groups fought tooth-and-nail against a mass hunt meant to eradicate naturalized burros and hogs from the Galapagos islands. These animals were ruining a delicate ecosystem and causing the extinction of endemic (occuring nowhere else) species, and physically removing thousands of large, feral mammals from a remote island was logistically and financially impossible. Yet, going in and shooting them was deemed unacceptable by certain groups (sorry, I don’t have a cite, this was from a wildlife class at Oregon State U.).
Blah, I’m glad to finally see a bit of pragmatic thinking on the part of PETA.
The interesting thing is that, like all mussels, zebra mussels purify the water that they live in. They don’t belong, and they’re hurting other species, but their sheer numbers are actually having a positive effect on the cleanliness of some of the bodies of water that they inhabit. We’re accidentally cleaning up some of our mess.
I’ve been watching the snakehead saga on National Geographic Today. The little bastards look mean. I said they should kill off the whole pond in an earlier thread we had on this topic.
I think that introduction of exotics could be one of the most potent and insidious kinds of biological warfare. Research your enemy’s land and ecologies, find out what creatures would do the most damage to their economy (by damaging crops, hurting livestock, making waterways unnavigable, whatever) and introducing them.
I read somewhere years ago, and I have no cite for it, that Hawaii, having been a delicately balanced and for all intents and purposes a closed ecosystem for centuries/millennia, had huge problems when Europeans began arriving, with rats from the ships getting onto land and tearing the place up.
Not to mention the European diseases, such as diphtheria, which killed many, many Native Americans way back when.
And I’m right with the Australians on the rabbit thing. Never having been around them, I always thought rabbits were cute until I spent a couple years having them eat my vegetable garden in Iowa. Now I think they’re just long-eared rats.
I’d like to see a cite on that. 
So can walking catfish. Whatever happened to them?
That’s a phenomena consistent accross all island ecosystems. Especially very isolated islands, because chances of dispersal of new genes to the population from a mainland are practically nil. On a larger scale, Australia suffers from the same problems. The species have evolved apart from continental species for eons, so they’ve become highly specialized and not able to compete with the generalists. Rats, cats, and pigs are death to animals that have not evolved mechanisms to defend themselves against these predators (ie, flightless birds, etc).
Exotics are a huge problem and will only get worse, considering the increase in global mobility over the last few decades.
Sure thing. It’s a re-print of an AP story, but it has the info you’re looking for. http://www.cdnn.info/eco/e020726/e020726.html
The website is a SCUBA diver’s resource site. It pulls in and locally mirrors interesting news articles and tidbits that would be interesting to divers from around the world.
Enjoy,
Steven
That sounds like they just bite fishermen who catch them. and since when can i not make a joke at Peta’s expense? (and i knew all that you posted except the human attacks, so nyeh nyeh nyeh! )
Problem is, i don’t see them ever being eradicated. We’ll get some, maybe even most, might even take out a few of the species entrenched here, but we won’t get all, more will escape. I should look for a restaurant around town that serves them so i can see what they taste like. If they are any good, then i may help the eradication effort in my own small way via fishing…
I’m trying to find out what keeps the snakehead fish in check in asia, but i keep getting drowned in stories warning about the snakehead in the US.
The what?
F-rogs?
Oh, do you mean the ChuzzWuzzers?
There are many places in the US where they are indeed too deeply entrenched to remove completely. The pond in Maryland is not one of these however, it is still fairly isolated and it can be completely depopulated before being restocked with native fish. Snake-head fish are still a problem in Florida and a few other locales.
Tars I love a good joke at PETA’s expense, usually they’re enough of a joke in and of themselves though. In answer to your question, snake-head fish have very few natural predators. They are mainly kept in check in China by the farmers who eat them and the fact that their habitats pretty much dry out once a year(shallow ponds and rice patties) making them migrate and exposing the smaller ones to death along the way. Also as the pond gets smaller the larger ones turn cannibal.
Snakefish are pretty much a top-level predator with things like Crocodiles being among the types of predators that eat them. Obviously importing crocodiles for this Maryland pond would cause other concerns.
In their native regions they’re mainly kept in check by the climate cycles and a human population who enjoys eating them.
Enjoy,
Steven
Actually, it doesn’t say “Bit John Smith in Fargo, North Dakota on his way home from a Christmas party and he bled to death (or was mildly pissed)”, but what the hey. I want some for my moat.
Sorry, wasnt’ able to find actual case studies with names of people and such. They’re not normally aggressive towards humans, but if they’re running low on food(and the way they eat everything that moves this happens pretty quickly) they start migrating and turning more voracious. As I noted above their natural habitat is shallow ponds and rivers that dry up pretty much once a season. These things are suprisingly mobile and that means they will spread and come into contact with humans who are not used to them like the Chinese are.
I did find a source that said there are no known deaths from snake-head attacks.
And once a year you can lead them on a campaign of terror through the countryside. Flop my fighting fishies! FLOP!
Enjoy,
Steven
How to keep them in check: McSnakehead Burgers, fries, and a large vanilla snake!
Since we’re all being pleasant about this…
Heck, my goldfish attack me when I get into the lotus pool to remove the tropicals in the fall.
You oughta see these pencil eraser sized hickeys from Carassius auratus.
Are they kosher? Do they have scales?
You already have the start of your army! Go forth and multiply. And remember, always pillage BEFORE you burn.
Enjoy,
Steven
Thanks for the advice, pal.
Where did you say you lived?
Tars, you want in on this? You’ll have to curb your appetite so that you don’t eat our infantry.