Kentucky is using 'shocking' boats to show just how bad its Asian carp problem is

[JacksinPA]

Kentucky is using 'shocking' boats to show just how bad its Asian carp problem is - CNN

(CNN)Asian carp are a serious problem, and Kentucky is getting creative in dealing with the invasive species.

To show how bad the issue is, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources used "shocking" boats to stun the carp so they'd float to the surface and could be collected and measured. Video shows countless fish leaping after the boat sent an electrical current through the water at Barkley Dam on Tuesday.
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I hope this doesn't give some sports & commercial fishermen the idea of using the same technology on non-invasive fish species.

 

[ecofarm]

Maybe in a hundred years, we'll have only snakehead and carp, even in the Great Lakes. No other freshwater fish. No bass, no bluegill, no trout. Nothing except two species.

 

[Phys251]

Kentucky is using 'shocking' boats to show just how bad its Asian carp problem is - CNN

(CNN)Asian carp are a serious problem, and Kentucky is getting creative in dealing with the invasive species.

To show how bad the issue is, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources used "shocking" boats to stun the carp so they'd float to the surface and could be collected and measured. Video shows countless fish leaping after the boat sent an electrical current through the water at Barkley Dam on Tuesday.
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I hope this doesn't give some sports & commercial fishermen the idea of using the same technology on non-invasive fish species.

Watching those videos of jumping Asian carps is funny until you realize what it means for our ecosystems.

I hope we can get rid of them, but invasive species are notoriously difficult to remove.

 

[WCH]

Grass carp were introduced into Lake Austin [TX] to rid it of hydrilla [another invasive species]. Over the years they ate everything green in the lake rendering it mostly barren...crippling the fishing industry.

YouTube

 

[JacksinPA]

Maybe in a hundred years, we'll have only snakehead and carp, even in the Great Lakes. No other freshwater fish. No bass, no bluegill, no trout. Nothing except two species.

With only 2 species that should make them easier to eradicate: species-selective birth control. Then restock with the good guys.

 

[ecofarm]

With only 2 species that should make them easier to eradicate: species-selective birth control. Then restock with the good guys.

The habitat changes irrevocably and then collapses.

 

[Barnacle]

With only 2 species that should make them easier to eradicate: species-selective birth control. Then restock with the good guys.

... :lol: ...

 

[Roadvirus]

Maybe in a hundred years, we'll have only snakehead and carp, even in the Great Lakes. No other freshwater fish. No bass, no bluegill, no trout. Nothing except two species.

Yeah. The Asian Carp in the GLs are a royal bitch.

 

[ecofarm]

Yeah. The Asian Carp in the GLs are a royal bitch.

Big snakes are having quite a party in the Glades. I hope that's getting under control.

 

[Roadvirus]

Big snakes are having quite a party in the Glades. I hope that's getting under control.

The government holds hunts for them...almost to the point where it's a competition (who can get the biggest). And what they don't get the gators deal with.

 

[ecofarm]

The government holds hunts for them...almost to the point where it's a competition (who can get the biggest). And what they don't get the gators deal with.

I don't know how many years the 'competitions' (number and size) have been going on, but I suppose South Florida is pretty good at this stuff. Without the culling, the gators would lose.

 

[JacksinPA]

They have hunts also for those huge snakes also, right?

 

[ecofarm]

They have hunts also for those huge snakes also, right?

That's what we mean, the large constrictors released into the Everglades. They are exotic invasives of unimaginable horror. Were it not for state sponsored mass culling events, they would collapse the ecosystem (not habitat, ecosystem of South or all Florida) in a generation.

 

[Bum]

You would think that we humans, who were able to engineer the extinction of so many other species, including the Passenger Pigeon which once numbered in the billions, would be able to eradicate other species on a somewhat smaller scale. :shrug:

 

[JacksinPA]

I grew up in the 'duck & cover' years of the start of the Cold War. The paranoia associated with a pending nuclear armageddon that gripped this nation in the 50s & 60s has been all but forgotten as we & the rest of the world continue to build & enhance our stockpiles of nuclear weapons. With so many military flash points around the world, we are much closer to that nuclear apocalypse today than we were 60 years ago. We have engineered the extinction of our own species & all it will take is one glitch or hiccup to send our species into extinction.

 

[Deuce]

You would think that we humans, who were able to engineer the extinction of so many other species, including the Passenger Pigeon which once numbered in the billions, would be able to eradicate other species on a somewhat smaller scale. :shrug:

We’ve wiped out numerous species by accident. We’re extremely good at killing things.

But some species are better evolved than us. Roaches will outlive us.

 

[JacksinPA]

We’ve wiped out numerous species by accident. We’re extremely good at killing things.

But some species are better evolved than us. Roaches will outlive us.

Roaches & such species as the Horseshoe Crab are many hundreds of times older than mammals.