River Monsters

[Kayleigh]

Did anyone see this last night about the snakeshead fish that are invading America.
They were introduced deliberately by the Chines as they are thought to have medicinal purposes they are thought to help the healing process after operations.
They are also good food and expensive to buy so the sellers make a good living, so as not have to import them they released them into the wild where they can catch them when they want.
The fish are thought to able to travel over land and live out of water for 3 days they also breath air they come up for air so can live in un-oxygenated water where other fish would perish they are also very hardy so the cold does not affect them they are breeding rapidly and are said to be more viscous than piranhas, they kill prey if they see anything move and bite it in half and leave it to die as they are a ferocious predator.
I hope to god nothing like this gets released here..

http://animal.discovery.com/fish/river-monsters/giant-
snakehead/

This was on ITV last night about 11pm.

[RobinP]

Just as worrying are the Grass Carp that have invaded America and are threatening to enter the Great Lakes. These have also been deliberately introduced to the rivers, as have the Burmese Pythons in Florida.

[nightshade]

We already have Terrapin, Pumpkin Seed, Wels, Mitten crab, Coypu, and many others in our rivers and estuaries. We have Grass Carp introduced by fishermen for fishermen, Zander, ditto in fact we need a full time Biological police force as many other countries have with swinging penalties/death sentences for people who blatantly introduce alien flora/fauna

[GME]

Yes, I really enjoy this series whenever it's repeated. That episode was particularly alarming though for highlighting how easily foreign, introduced wildlife can become so invasive and intrusive. It was interesting to see those 'police' trawling along and stunning the fish in the rivers to remove the invaders whilst putting the native species back. Also interesting to see that some of the fish put back in were legally introduced foreigners. Wonder how long it'll be before they decide that some of the 'good foreigners' have become a problem as well?

[thunder]

Originally Posted by nightshade

We already have Terrapin, Pumpkin Seed, Wels, Mitten crab, Coypu, and many others in our rivers and estuaries.

No Coypu left in Britain!

henrya