Subject: Re: NANFA-L--Snakehead News Story
dlmcneely at lunet.edu
Date: Wed Oct 06 2004 - 10:30:37 CDT
Well, actually, some of us do recognize the problems of introducing any exotic, including salmonids. The difficulty is that neither the public nor some fish and game managers understand the nature of nature. It is up to those who do to help to educate them. We have a really nice stream in NE Oklahoma that still maintains high quality habitat and good populations of some darter and minnow species that are generally in trouble in Oklahoma, or that are unique to the Ozarks. ODWC has recently approved a proposal by a private organization to establish a put and take trout fishery in the stream, after concluding (based on an extremely limited study) that there are no data that suggest hatchery trout would prey on or competitively exclude the native game species (smallmouth bass). Might there be other reasons not to dump trout in the creek? The real reason the proposal was approved is that the organization that proposed it includes influential citizens who happen to have a lot of mone
Some of us ARE upset. But at least the proposal followed a protocol established by the management agency before it was approved. Did something similar happen with the snakeheads? Or did some aquarists simply dump their excess stock? Was the stock obtained from an organization that had legally imported snakeheads, and provided appropriate information about them to the buyers? Or were the snakeheads illegally imported, sold to anyone who had the purchase price without any attempt to educate, and then eventually dumped? Did some unscrupulous importer start to fear getting caught in one crime, and then commit another to escape detection? If people are law abiding, then there is a chance to manage, wisely or unwisely. If people are not law abiding, then there is no chance for wise management practices.
We, as aquarists, must police ourselves, or we are the problem. As educated citizens, we can also help on other problems, such as unwise management.
David L. McNeely, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Langston University; P.O. Box 1500
Langston, OK 73050; email: dlmcneely at lunet.edu
telephone: (405) 466-6025; fax: 405) 466-3307
home page http://www.lunet.edu/mcneely
"Where are we going?" "I don't know, are we there yet?"
----- Original Message -----
From: Snailcollector at cs.com
Date: Tuesday, October 5, 2004 4:47 pm
Subject: Re: NANFA-L--Snakehead News Story
> Of course, know one gets upset when they release brown trout...
>
>
> Andrew
>
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: Fri Dec 31 2004 - 11:27:39 CST