Re: NANFA-L-- Grouper Tales

dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
Thu, 06 Jan 2005 11:11:28 -0600

Ray, your joke was probably funny; I'm sorry I missed it.

However, whether there is hype (and there is in the sort of media that you mentioned consulting, and sometimes in other sorts of media) or not concerning non-native species, the vigilence that governmental agencies and NGO's exercise toward this menace is essential. Those "affected" are mostly people who seem to find it impossible to put public welfare, and especially biological integrity in nature above their own narrow interest, as in "I want to keep one of those in my home, and I won't turn it loose into nature, so I should be allowed to." Whether I as an individual will turn the thing loose or not, and whether that particular species would ever become an invader or not (we won't know until it's too late, will we?) irresponsible importers, ignorant purchasers, wilful miscreants, and on and on regularly do release wildlife into NA waters, wildlands, and urban parks.

Let's, as a responsible, conservation minded organization, contribute to the solutions to these problems, not their exacerbation. One of our organizational objectives is education of others regarding native fishes. Native fishes are harmed by introduced species, including ones introduced by hobbyists.

Dave

David L. McNeely, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Langston University; P.O. Box 1500
Langston, OK 73050; email: dlmcneely-in-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: Tom Watson <onefish2fish-in-comcast.net>
Date: Wednesday, January 5, 2005 7:00 pm
Subject: NANFA-L-- Grouper Tales

> From the NFC list and our old friend Ray:
>
> From: "R. W. Wolff" <choupiqu-in-wctc.net>
> Subject: grouper / the facts
>
> To clear the air, this was a joke I sent to several friends, and
> what helped was the picture was included with the email. It was of
> a hybrid sunfish, warmouth X green. The Jpeg was titled
> "cyanulosus" which might have been a tip ( one person caught this
> that I heard from). No need to read further, but I will explain
> what prompted me...
>
> It started with a normal winter time thing I do, run around the
> fishroom with my wifes digi cam and take pictures of my fish. 90%
> of them don't turn out, but a few do. I then run them through
> Adobe photo shop to make up for my poor lighting, cutting out
> unwanted border area etc. When I got done
> cleaning up the picture of my hybrid warmouth, I thought how nice
> he ( is a he) looked, and how this hybrid reminds me of a grouper.
>
> I was just going to send the picture to these people with the
> title " grouper found in WI". After some adult beverages got my
> inner comic in gear, I started formulating this crazy story. A
> parody of news releases we see often enough.
>
> After I was done with some spelling errors, and quotes of
> nameless people ( clues put in on purpose that a few people noted
> catching) I sent it out. I admit I am ashamed if I fooled anyone.
> What I was hoping for was to raise a chuckle from some, and get
> most people to think about what they read in
> sensationalized news media. These stories often seem to drive the
> government agencies to take quick and drastic actions, in my
> opinon. Warranted or not, I don't believe media press should drive
> these decisions, but scientific data, and conversation with those
> it will affect.
>
> That is all. I see it did make some people think. Now I promise
> not to "cry wolf" again for a good long time, if ever. But hope
> that everyone thinks more deeply when they read the next story
> about the coming armegeddon of introduced species. Obviously we
> all know this is a serious problem, and I was not making light of
> that. I was just making light of the media hysteria
> side of it. I was influenced by the snakehead movie on Sci-Fi
> channel to some extent. I could see some that read and heard the
> news accounts, believing much of this movie, which was as serious
> as my joke.
>
> Thanks, and sorry if I offended anyone.
>
> Ray
>

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