It is not nice to fool with Mother Nature….put a bounty on them and use them for fertilizer, fish emulsion, best fertilizer in the world. Find a way to make money off them….who knows what “herpes” virus is going to do besides kill these fish, in ten years you will know..guess what? TOO LATE!
Possibly herpesvirus laden pet food in the future.
Would it be feasible to use funds to subsidize a manufacturer to capture the fish naturally with nets and use as pet food now, rather than cleaning up a mess later which produces disposal and health concerns? I’m not fully apprised of this situation, but it’s just a suggestion.
I understand these carp are a nasty invasive species and something needs to be done about them, but how can one do a story like this without mentioning myxoma? The myxoma virus was released to control rabbit populations in Australia in the 1950s, after populations had exploded. Populations of the rabbit, also an invasive and destructive species, went down from about 600 million to ~100 million, but there was a subset of rabbits that were resistant to myxoma, and (myxoma-resistant) populations have rebounded since. So they’ll likely see some short-term die-offs in carp, but even at a 95% fatality rate, it’s probable they’ll just be hitting back against the same problem in a decade, with herpes-resistant carp. (More about the rabbit story here: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/…/08/2538860.htm).
It is not nice to fool with Mother Nature….put a bounty on them and use them for fertilizer, fish emulsion, best fertilizer in the world. Find a way to make money off them….who knows what “herpes” virus is going to do besides kill these fish, in ten years you will know..guess what? TOO LATE!
Possibly herpesvirus laden pet food in the future.
Would it be feasible to use funds to subsidize a manufacturer to capture the fish naturally with nets and use as pet food now, rather than cleaning up a mess later which produces disposal and health concerns? I’m not fully apprised of this situation, but it’s just a suggestion.
I understand these carp are a nasty invasive species and something needs to be done about them, but how can one do a story like this without mentioning myxoma? The myxoma virus was released to control rabbit populations in Australia in the 1950s, after populations had exploded. Populations of the rabbit, also an invasive and destructive species, went down from about 600 million to ~100 million, but there was a subset of rabbits that were resistant to myxoma, and (myxoma-resistant) populations have rebounded since. So they’ll likely see some short-term die-offs in carp, but even at a 95% fatality rate, it’s probable they’ll just be hitting back against the same problem in a decade, with herpes-resistant carp. (More about the rabbit story here: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/…/08/2538860.htm).