The threat of invasive species

Don't look now but ... THEY'RE HERE! A veritable army of real life monsters is invading whole sections of our country, and so far we're not putting up much of a resistance. Our Cover Story is reported by Mark Strassmann:

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Meet the king of the Illinois River, and a big showoff.

Fast, easy to startle, and voracious eaters, Asian silver carp are a jarring sight here, and a hit on YouTube.

"Very muscular," said Greg sass. "This thing'll hurt you. They can jump out of the water at high speeds. They can jump a great distance out of the water, and so they're quite dangerous when you're out on the river."

But Sass, until recently with the Illinois Natural History Survey, said that in the long history of this waterway, what's also remarkable is when this fish got here - just 20 years ago.

"By the mid-2000s, it was becoming a crisis," Sass told Strassmann. "Not only with fish jumping everywhere, but just what was showing up in our catches, the amount of Asian carp versus the native fishes."

With no natural predators in this stretch of the river in Central Illinois, up to nine out of ten fish here are now Asian carp.

"We've seen explosive population growth, a population that has almost doubled every year," Sass said. "We're fairly confident we have the highest wild densities of Asian carp anywhere in the world."

Which is quite a feat considering this fish is from China.

The Illinois river has been invaded.

"As a scientist or even a recreational fisherman or a boater, you go, 'Wow, this is a huge, huge problem,'" he said. "These fish are behaving in a way that we're not used to. They're doing things to the ecosystem that we're not completely sure what kind of effect there's going to be yet. And there's just an incredible abundance of them."

It's an invasion from coast to coast, from Africanized killer honey bees in the Southwest to South American nutria in Louisiana, to the spread of the Burmese python in the Florida Everglades ... all part of a scary trend.

"Everywhere we look, we see species that are spreading and damaging our natural ecosystems," said University of Notre Dame biologist David Lodge. "And when scientists look into the future, they see the potential for many more damaging species."

"You make it sound like we're under attack everywhere," said Strassmann.

"We ARE under attack everywhere."

Lodge says our agricultural system depends on plant and animal species imported to America, like wheat and cows and pigs - but that doesn't make them invaders.

"An invasive species is a species that's been transported from one part of the planet to the other by people, and a species that has a harmful impact," Lodge said.

"Typically transported by design, by accident, or little bit of both?" asked Strassmann.

"Both. Lots of invasive species have been transported by accident in the ballast water of ships or as a hidden pest on plants that have been imported. But many have also been imported intentionally."

Like the Shakespeare fan who, back in the 1890s, set out to bring to America every bird mentioned in the Bard's plays ...

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[superdem1]

Can't these fish be eaten ? Or ground into feed for mink or pigs ? It seems there must be a resource they can be rendered into. And these snails, can't they be eaten ? Restaurants serve snails, with a nice garlic sauce they should be quite meaty. Asian restaurants serve almost anything, that's how snakehead fish got here, from restaurants. Unless these creatures are somehow poisonous, we're just not being very creative in dealing with these potential food sources. And these zebra mussels, what about those ? Steam 'em up, with garlic and butter. What's the problem ?

[Greg0658]

signed in to refute the kudzu problem is beyond help because there just isn't enough money to curtail the problem "it's not a feasible activity" .. "what we have here is a failure to communicate" .. capitalist are the invasive species of planet earth

[jwagner0130]

Greg - did you study at the University of South Florida for your undergrad?

[credibility2]

Globalization and environmental zealots have compounded the problems with invasive species.

[newnameagain]

I see oportunity for a lot of jobs here

[drmomj]

As for Kudzu, my son Jacob has been working on eradication of the weed for 6 years. He just won the FFA National in Emerging Agricultural Technology for his invention of a dril and method for the eradication. Mr. Taylor needs to contact my son, as the cost is not astronomical. It is expensive initially, but it is a single treatment. Auburn Uninversity is currently working with him to learn why it does what it does. You can see him and his research if you Google Jacob Schindler Kudzu or Jacob Schindler FFA

[trueblueusa]

WrongWingNuts have Invaded the USA
They Control The House of Representatives now,....They have poisoned our youth and are pushing for Dirty Air,Polluted Water and More Re-CON Corruption.They have the Koch Bros. buying out large sections of the country.We can`t take much more of the wide-spread Re-Con Damnage.

[aaronververs]

Seeing as Illinois is a big Ag state, there should be some cooperatives operating by now;
1) Netting or electroshock operations that collect the carp while attempting to release native species, and
2) A distribution network that puts these fish into arable farmland (the best natural and organic fertilizer you'll find).

[trueblueusa]

Asian Beetles
Introduced in the USA in 1976 to control aphids,...now they are Out Of Control in the Midwest.
If God wanted them here,...they would have been here. They are Nasty,stinky stinging bugs that invade dwellings by the thousands in late fall.

[skeezix06]

We used to have inspectors that looked for things like that. That is,we used to have inspectors that looked for things like that till the republicans did away with an adequate number inspectors to protect us from things like this.

[gadfly65]

"Everywhere we look, we see species that are spreading and damaging our natural ecosystems,"

This sentence seems carefully worded to avoided stating the truth - man is responsible for the damage to ecosystems; invasive species don't spread without some kind of human assistance.