Re: NANFA--Snakeheads and Pacu - the whole thing makes me sick

R. W. Wolff (choupiqu_at_wctc.net)
Fri, 26 Sep 2003 00:03:34 -0500

How about the possibility that someone in Illinois released the snakehead
when IL implemented the ban? Then it swam up river to WI. Janesville is a
very short distance from Rockford Illinois. Certainly if they judged the
fish had been in the river for a good while. Also in the article, the
bioligist who caught this fish released it, thinking it was a bowfin. Come
on, bowfin. If they honestly thought it was a bowfin, then they should have
taken it in for testing to determine why the pelvic fins migrated forward,
the anal fin developed several more rays, and the head grew scales. Not to
mention the odd coloration.

Here is a link to the story I got my info from, with a picture of the actual
fish you can blow up and look at yourself and see if you think it's a
bowfin.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4115924.html

Not to worry, most who fish in Wisconsin despise bowfin, and if it is
caught , it will be tossed on shore and stomped on, slit up, or some other
gruesome butchering and then kicked into the tall grass and brush to rot.
Certainly bowfin will loose on this one, when people are encouraged to kill
snakeheads, as they are ruffe, gobies, and white perch.

The whole situation is bad. Several Pacu have been caught in Lake
Columbia, a cooling lake that is very warm all year. No race to ban Pacu or
even Pirahna in Wisconsin. A Tilapia was caught in Horicon marsh some years
back. No race to ban all cichlid species. Just as the mass ban on Channa and
Parachanna has banned some delightful dwarf species in some states. Yet
exotic salmon and trout are stocked here every year, since they raise lots
of money for the state. You won't find them bashed on the rocks of Lake
Michigans coast.

Ray
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