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NFC: RE: buyer for exotics


Heh, I'm with Chuck ... what is "sustainable commercially viable exotic removal" anyway?

Silly me ... there I was thinking that the nominal and publicly announced goal (read "too ambitious to be achievable") was complete extirpation of established populations of exotics.

And the more probable real [achievable] goal was to use this effort to raise public consciousness that "you never, never, never, ever*  release fish from aquariums into the wild, no matter where they come from, don't even think about it, bub !!!" 

I hope that removal of exotics never becomes commercially viable, because (without a lot of careful effort) that would set up very perverse incentives. "Yep, I'm a full-time professional exotic fish removal specialist. These exotic fish are out here breeding and goin' crazy out here in the cricks and in the swamp, I catch 'em in vast quantities with no limits, and the gummit pays me to haul 'em out. I just make sure I leave enough so they keep breeding every year and ... sweet deal, ain't it??? And it gives me a second income while I'm being paid to not grow peanuts on my farm."  

IMO, exotics removal is an effort that is best powered by the "do right inclinations of concerned people," without expectations of $$$ attached. 


Of course, it's also possible that if you can't make it commercial, nothing much will be done to rid the environment of exotics, because the collective do right inclinations of concerned people doesn't generate much in the way of actual horsepower on task.

Along those line, here's a just-emerging thought  ... people DO get out of their armchairs to do river clean-ups. For example, I got a notice the other day about an upcoming event of this type on the St. Johns River near me, the  web-site description of which says (in part):

>>   The sixth annual St. Johns River Celebration is your 
>>  chance to help clean up our waterways. The cleanup 
>>  efforts go beyond the shoreline of the river, 
>>  encompassing the river's entire watershed.
>>  
>>  During the Celebration's last five years, more than 
>>  28,000 volunteers have removed more than 2 million 
>>  pounds of trash from the St. Johns River and its tributaries.


WOW .... an average of over 5000 people per year. And while the St Johns is a god size river, except for the Jacksonville end, most of it runs through territory that is relatively lightly populated by Florida standards. So that's an impressive turn-out.

Maybe we ought to be trying to get the organizers of these kinds of events to see that removing exotic fauna is also a legitimate part of a cleanup effort, and try to have them try to formally address that too.  (Of course, everyone recognizes that an automobile tire doesn't belong in the river bed .... but you can't expect them to correctly ID and recognize a juvenile tilapia as biological trash.)



.02

Doug Dame
Interlachen FL USA
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Why yes, I am wearing my spiffy new Nomex 
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* unless it's part of a "coordinated re-introduction in the wild" project sanctioned by "appropriate scientific authorities" (however that might be defined/recognized.)



>>> chuckmiro at wdn_com Friday, February 16, 2001 9:49:51 AM >>>
> ...remember guys sustainable commercially viable
> exotic removal is the goal!!

I'm sure you old-timers know what this sentence means but I would appreciate
a translation. :)

Chuck
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