Re: NANFA-L-- A Deluge of Snakeheads

Jerry Baker (nanfa at bakerweb.biz)
Wed, 12 Oct 2005 07:24:38 -0700

Todd D. Crail wrote:
> My guess is... The snakeheads are filling an empty or vaccant niche, which
> recruitment from each brood is exceptionally high, and why it appears
> they're populating at an incredible rate.

I don't know if you meant it this way or not, but this is the kind of
specious argument used by some extremists to minimize or explain away
the negative impacts of humans on the environment. These types of
arguments are especially used to argue that no action need be taken to
control these pests, and that humans are "just accelerating the natural
course of things." Of course we are, in the same sense that a burning
engine block is just an accelerated process of rusting.

The argument also does not address the fact that many foreign pests do
not "occupy an empty niche," but rather hijack one from a native that
has not evolved to deal with the invader.
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