>From: Moontanman-in-aol.com
>Date: Fri May 19 10:37:47 CDT 2006
>To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
>Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Old story, new twist? Old twist new story. Please read
>Ok, what I was trying to bring to everyone's attention again is the fact
>that we seem to be willing to skirt disaster by allowing things like big headed
>carp, peacock bass, and other fish that obviously have the potential to cause
>problems much like allowing African lions and elephants to roam across the
>mid west (I am glad that was seen as a very bad idea); but we seem to have a
>real problem even looking-in-the possibility of introducing a fish that would
>almost certainly be harmless. Yet we bring fish from one watershed to
>another like introducing flathead catfish or some aggressive sort of trout or large
>mouth bass outside their range without even much of a thought. The list of
>potential disasters goes on and on. Why is it so difficult to even look
>seriously into the possibility of introducing a fish with much less harmful
>potential? Are anglers more important than conserving the fish population of a water
>shed? I am sorry I brought up the colonizing the galaxy thing. It was way
>off topic even though introducing new animals is what humans seem to do best. I
>have several friends who don't know much about introducing fish but even they
> can see the danger of introducing flathead catfish beyond their range. Here
>in the Cape Fear River, flathead catfish have had a very bad impact on the
>population of bullhead catfish, Centrarchidae (sunfish) and other native fish.
>Even when such introductions were by accident as in big headed carp it
>shouldn't have taken much to suspect the big headed carp were going to be a
>problem. But to suggest a small benign sturgeon, one of which only gets to be 12"
>long maximum, should be looked into is treated like a piranha adapted to cold
>water should be introduced. It's even possible we might even learn something
>that could help us next time an exotic is suggested for introduction. Fish
>like the big headed carp seem to get a free pass even though the potential for
>problems was quite high. I am amazed that somehow we missed out on getting
>the Wels catfish. Not to many years ago fish like the Wels seemed like a shoo
>in but somehow reason prevailed and we missed out on a catfish that grows to
>be 12' long! I can hardly imagine the nightmare that would have been
>unleashed. Maybe some people just have a problem with saving a fish that is losing
>it's habitat. One thing is for sure we seem to have a talent for acquiring
>exotics we don't need and are most likely to be a danger to our own fish. Even
>though many of the exotics we have are acquired through accident many are
>intentionally introduced to control some problem or other or through accidental
>aquaculture release. At the very least we should be developing some sort of
>rating system to bring the potential for problems to the attention of the people
>making these decisions.
>
>Michael Hissom
>Captive Environments, aquaculture
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/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml