ammmit / Depositphotos.com
Tilapia, a hardy invasive fish, has reemerged in canals near Port Sulphur, two decades after escaping a pond during Hurricane Katrina. LDWF Deputy Assistant Secretary of Fisheries Chris Schieble says they thought Tilapia was eradicated in 2009 through a costly rotenone treatment, and recent findings of juvenile tilapia suggest some survived.
“We’re not really sure of the numbers that are there right now. We’re going to look into that and do some additional testing down there with some of our inland fishery sampling equipment to try to figure out the actual density of how many are there.”
Schieble says the fish pose a major ecological threat if they spread into nearby estuaries, where they could displace native species.
“In very high numbers, they can displace some of the native fisheries that are in there as far as resource depletion, competition, and fawning habitat competition.”
The discovery has renewed concern over invasive species management and the potential long-term consequences of introducing non-native fish into the wild. Schieblie encourages anyone that catches tilapia to not release it back into the water.
“What I recommend is that if anybody catches any, whether they want to eat it or not that they do not throw it back. They should terminate that fish. Kill it. Do not put it back where you got it.”
Comments