Released Fish

I heard once that red ants are non-natives to North America.

Only the black ants you usually see on trees are the natives.

I don't know if that's true, but if it is...man, the ants here have been taken over.
 
there are native red ants here- but the fire ants that are moveing northwords every year are not- those things are nasty

some other non-native species

the sparrow
honeysuckle
grey squirrels
house mice
october lady beatles (the lady bugs that go inside during the spring)
asian longhorn beatles
japanese beatles
fire ants
untold numbers of other insects
add any more to the list if you can think of anything else...
 
Funny this Thread was re-opened as I just read in the Florida Sportsman magazine, peacock bass and some other non-naitive species are being "stocked" in south Florida! I can't believe I read this!

They didn't give the source of the stocking, but I thought this was prohibited. Now it sounds like this is normal.

Florida Sportsman is a fishing magazine.
 
Non-native game fish are frequently stocked to support fisheries. In most places, the stocking only continues if the non-native is already established, or won't be able to spread from the stocked water. Many managers have tried to reduce the practice, only to deal with complaints and such from angry anglers. In some locations, it works--non-native have been eliminated in some streams to allow native species of concern to stabilize populations. It's tricky.

Of course, a lot depends on who you talk to. There really are very documented cases where an invasive species totally eliminated a native--and the documented cases that exist tend to be on fragile landscapes with limited population diversity. It's hard to put a moral finger on the right side here--is it more important to have species diversity, or more important to have limited species that evolved 'locally'? It's well documented that species spread through a vatiety of vectors. Human ships and cargo, pets, and indeed human beings themselves are now just a new vector. While I don't support intentional introductions, I don't know how much effort we can put into removing an established species (think rainbow trout in the west, or those peacock bass in Florida). Most removal processes are pretty lethal to everything in the water: plants, inverts, fish.
 
What makes all this worse is that alot of the people releasing these fish probably think they are doing a good thing :thud: !! The fish will have the whole ocean, lake, etc. and they don't realize the problems..."its only one fish..."
 
OrionGirl said:
Non-native game fish are frequently stocked to support fisheries. ...... It's tricky.

... There really are very documented cases where an invasive species totally eliminated a native-......
These invasive cichlids dominate the native largemouth bass -- in other words eliminating the bass, bluegills, bream, etc.. Which is why I wonder "stocking" the cichlids seemed normal in the article.
It's totally opposite of protecting native fish.
:confused:
 
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