Re: NANFA-- peacock bass

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus_at_hotmail.com)
Sun, 19 Dec 1999 12:32:52 EST

I think we could go and debate these guys until we're blue in the face and
they would still think we're out of our minds for imagining any negative
impacts. They learned this kind of management technique in college and, by
their measure, it works great. What impacts would these guys look for? Lower
reproductive success by local topminnows or cyprinids that aren't equipped
to deal with Oscars (or tilapia)? Higher predation on turtle hatchlings, or
young water birds? A shift in nutrient cycles through a domino effect from
one of the above, or many other possible changes? I bet the management team
here isn't looking at possible shift like this, and would be able to naysay
it with their own views and analyses.

Confronting this kind of government response is a major challenge to a group
like NANFA, because it superficially seems successful to most people who
look at it. Such a challenge might even make a successful ecologist like
Aldo Leopold cringe (RIP!).

--Bruce Stallsmith
in Oscar-free Huntsville, AL

>"No known negative impact"? Does anyone know what negative impacts on
>native fishes have actually occurred from the peacock bass? And if these
>impacts are a worthwhile tradeoff to reduce tilapia numbers?
>
>--
>Jay DeLong
>Olympia, WA

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