Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Stuart
I read JG diffrently, It's not the opinion on introducing a species that makes us sheeps.
It's rather the imature and colective response from the established, towards a "odd" wiev on the theme/heading (How irresponsible can people get?).
IMO JG provides a interesting angel, suported with some good arguments, (and he is pointing out that he is not advcating a reelese of excotic species)

This http://www.aftenbladet.no/nyheter/lokal ... -rh0ZEk-50
is a press reelese from Norway on Carps (invasive specie here), the responses on forums and amongst most people (and politicans) are much like on this forum.............
The scientists/experts (here) have a much more sober reaction towards the drama "carp releese" And their argument sounds a bit like JG's, thats interesting IMO.
But esablished opinion's (people) are taking action, they wan't new scientists/biologists that share the public opinion (baaaa baaa) to make the "right" decisions on this matter.

I hope you stay on the forum JG You challenge my established views, so I have to think rethink........... and I enjoy that.

cheers

Just to get back on topic... or just to argue with someone else...
It isnt just the aquarium trade.

The club I am on committee for is working with the Swan River Trust to educate people on this issue.
We are currently organising handouts and posters for local fish shops detailing why fish should not be released.
And are working on getting plastic fish bags made up telling people not to dump unwanted fish in rivers.
We also have a program where any fish shop that will willingly take any size/type of unwanted fish off peoples hands are on a list that is easily available.
We are doing what we can to educate people.

But it is an up hill battle.
Councils have admitted to us that they have stocked local ponds with koi carp to give residents something to feed and look at.
It was the government that used a poorly researched paper to justify releasing mosquito fish (gambusia) into water ways.

You cant blame ornamental fish keepers for everything.
And you cant regulate the aquarium trade.
Everyone complained on here about requiring a translocation permit to buy trout.
Can you picture the sheer logistics involved in trying to do that for the aquarium trade?
Do you have any idea of the volume of guppys, tetras, goldfish and bristlenose catfish that get sold every week?
It just cant be done.
The Braziliensis (pearl cichlid) problem is about 15 years old, we have known about it for ages.
It was from one uneducated idiot.
And it has caused us a huge problem with trying to increase the number of Cichlids available for import in Australia.

Also, if you read the full article you see that perch have been caught too.
They are not an ornamental fish, and could very well have been released by an APer.
In fact, I have been told that the number of perch and barra caught have increased significantly since AP has taken off in the last few years.

The solution to the problem is education, not government intervention.
We are doing what we can, but government regulation isnt going to fix the problem.

Andrew

I see it differently again, we are all sheep because we don't agree with one persons point of view? And the only civil responses are the ones in agreeance:



There were plenty of civil interactions but they seem to be ignored because they differer in opinion.

See thats civil Andrew, even though you disagree ...

But I did say:

And we still stock the waterways in the SW with trout..

Why Grandpa Was Wrong
http://www.pondboss.com/free_articles.asp?id=37

cheers

@ Bender the example was of asian honey bees moving in from Papua New Guinea.

European honey bees are just one ofthe many species like the rabbit and fox that we will never be rid of.

Ah no worries, sorry miss read your post Stuart.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510b using Tapatalk 2

Dont know what i did but i wiped my post ,here it is again
i have to agee with werdna on this .The aquariumtrade cops a flogging over the issue of unwanted fish being dumped in our water ways.For a long time the trade as awhole has been educating the public on this topic, we even have display or "orphan tanks" for unwanted fish.Many fish are saleable back to shops. I do believe it is working( cant control d***h**ds)
The aquarium import trade has been strictly controlled for some time,it took 5-6 yrs for 5 species of fish to be added to the import list and aqis ended up rejecting one of them for a while anyway.
I know of anglers talking about adding certain fish to spots to create great fishing but as i never saw or veryified this is only hearsay,but if enough people say it,it becomes fact.
The govt leaves us for dead in the bad decision stakes( great big bloody trench in our almost unique port phillip bay for one ) so all we can do is educate as many people as possible whether it be aquaponics or aquarium keeping.
sorry about the rant,hope its not taken the wrong way.

Also i totally dissagree with any release of fish into our water ways( except authorized indiginous release, i think thats what i mean)
Our waterways are intricate ecosystems not just on the fish level and should be protected as such.

That article seems to contradict the thrust of your earlier post. Full of many examples of how disastrous the introduction of exotic species can be. In light of those examples I would think a passionate response was justified.

If JG had made his comments more general in nature and included Norwegians given their reaction to the invasion of carp in scandinavia, Americans given the article you posted and every country with quarantine laws (ever tried to import something into Japan?) then he might not have got peoples backup so quickly.

As an ecologist I appreciate diversity that diversity is often eroded when species expand their range through the efforts of humans whether wittingly or otherwise. Rather than seeing an increase in diversity when an invasive species is introduced you often see a decrease. As an example New Zealands bird population which has already suffered terribly from the introduction of european species was dealt another blow by the introduction of the european wasp. The wasps eat many of the same naturally occuring foods sources that birds eat or the food of the birds eat. Some populations have been completely driven out were the wasps now occur. Concerted efforts to eliminate the wasps has resulted in bird populations showing signs of recovery. However, keeping areas free of wasps is simply not tenable except in areas of particular concern or value.

I really don't see how someone can say that the uncontrolled release of exotic species into a habitat where they have not previously occurred is anything but irresponsible.

I'll bark when I want to God Dammit!
hehe

The article is werry much describing how I grew up spending all vacations at my grandpas place
Now my place 5th generation agri/aqua farm.

I droped out on the aquaculture part in 1987 do to conflict of interest.
I had to make that choise presuing my profesional career, or continue the aquaculture part of the farm,
My big pasion for wildlife fishing/hunting made that choise easy, but still controversial (for the family) .
Good articel though and a familiar wiev for many? I think.

I spend my time (spare) fixing old spawning creeks and waterways for nativ wildlife, and are planing to revitalise the aquaculture part of the family farm AP style.

cheers

Hi all
Sorry for posting Norwegin links but here is anoyher http://www.abcnyheter.no/nyheter/2012/0 ... pa-15-kilo
Seems relevant in time and on topic
The pic in the link shows new Norwegian record on carp caught on fishing rod, 15,2 kilo.

cheers