AMERICA´S LEAPING FISH: IT´S A MATTER OF TAILS

Asian carp leaping into the air. Source: Chicago Magazine.

By Gundhramns Hammer
August 6, 2015

Man (Homo insapiens) is the most invasive species on the planet. There is no question about that.

Humans have invaded every nook and cranny on the planet. And wherever people go, the environment gets fucked up.

Ask any nonhuman species on the planet and they will tell you that man is a naturefucker.

This naked ape species has yet to learn to live in harmony with Mother Nature.

And now, curiously, a human dominant invasive species, in this case a basically European-derived “subspecies”, i.e. “white” Americans and Inc., is talking about another invasive nonhuman species, the Asian carps.

It is a matter of tails: A monkey not being able to see its own tail!

Capisce?

Let us check its tail.

In a previous post we talked about the emptying out of the world´s oceans by man.

Overfishing is causing great ecological damage to the marine ecosystems. And it impacts you as well.

All of this is not only dangerous, from the ecological perspective, but also in a way pitiful and ironic.

There is plenty of evidence that big fishing companies, following cultural, and commercial and culinary fads, i.e. what consumers demand and to please them, are fucking up marine fish stocks, for example tunas (Thunnus spp.), dumping back any other captured unwanted species  - be it invertebrate, fish, mammal or sea turtle - like trash at sea.

On the other hand, there are cases where some fishes have become an “invasive pest” outside their original range due to shortsighted introductions by humans.

This is precisely what has happened with the Asian carp species (Hypophthalmichthys spp., Mylopharyngodon spp., Ctenopharyngodon spp.) that were introduced in eastern United States.

They were introduced in catfish farms and municipal sewage ponds to eat the overgrowth of algae, but some escaped.

Unchecked, without any natural control by predators, Asian carps have practically taken over a third of the rivers in the Mississippi and Ohio basins, reaching as far north as the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which connects the Mississippi river to the Great Lakes. And recently they have been seen close to Lake Michigan (Fig. 1), according to some sources. As they go along, filtre feeding, Asian carps eat and exhaust phyto- and zooplankton populations, outcompeting and pushing native fish species to the verge of extinction . 

Figure 1. Distribution of the Asian carp (Hypophthalmichthys sp.) in the United States. Source: USGS via EatTheinvaders.

The Asian carp invasion has been so extensive that some people including ecologists and the owners of the fish industry are now worried that these species might enter the Great Lakes, thereby ruining the local fisheries.

Which goes to show you that humans should not mess with Mother Nature.

So, here comes the question:

If you are so worried about this fish species and want to eat fish, obviously putting Animal Rights ethics aside, for fish feel pain too, we may ask:

• Why not quit being finicky and switch to eating the massive amounts of this “invasive” species in the USA, catching them a la grande and leave the oceans alone for a while, at least for one day?

There are so many Asian carps swimming around and leaping when scared by fishermen´s boats that nonhungry Americans do not know what to do with!! Some bored and cruel folks just kill them for the sake of a laugh (Video 1)!!

Video 1. The worst fish in America: Asian carpocalypse. Uploaded by ViceNews.

Mon Capitaine, some experts say that eventually finicky humans, so used to soft processed foods, will eat Asian carps. 

It is only a matter of taste and the right marketing.

Yeah. To the above, we should add the time factor too, mon ami.

One of these days, the thousands of well-off finicky consumers walking around and directly or indirectly fucking up the planet will be so fucking starved that they will come to eat anything inclusing shit.

No wonder our parents used to tell us that before reaching the stars “mankind was bound to eat itself in its own backyard".

So far, it looks like our folks were damn right after all.

It is only a matter of time.

Right on!