Pick Your Poison

11/23/2009

Exotic fish called Asian carp are poised to invade the Great Lakes ecosystem unless wildlife officials do something bizarre and drastic: poison miles of river to stop these fish from advancing any further.  Several species of Asian carp are now well-established in the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers after having escaped catfish farming operations during flooding events in the 1990s (the carp helped keep the catfish ponds clean).  The carp voraciously consume plankton that the rest of the food chain depends upon, driving other fish species into decline.  In some places in the Illinois River, nine of every ten fish are Asian carp.  It seems counter-intuitive to save the Great Lakes by poisoning the waters feeding them, but it could be the only solution to keep this fecund exotic fish from forever altering that ecosystem and potentially driving other species to extinction.

Exotic species are plants or animals from one part of the world that have been accidentally or deliberately introduced by people into a new part of the world where they don't naturally occur.  Some of those exotic species experience a massive population explosion in their new environment because they lack the predators, parasites and other conditions that kept them in check in their native habitat, so we call them "invasive."  Generally speaking, this is bad news for all of the native species that can't compete with the new invasive exotic ones.  Some other invasive exotic species that you might be familiar with include gypsy moths, kudzu, fire ants, zebra mussels, Africanized honeybees and starlings.

VIDEO: Not only are Asian carp a threat to native fish and aquatic ecosystems, they are a danger to boaters and the local economy too.