And guess who profits from this -- the mosquitofish producers.
----Walt Courtenay
At 09:07 AM 10/2/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Of interest to NANFA and ACN members and others. I photocopied the articles
>mentioned below (9 pages), so if you're interested in reading them and don't
>have access to that magazine, contact me off list with your mailing address.
>
>Here's an excerpt from a section on biological control called "Fighting Fire
>with Fire":
>
>"Along with success stories, however, are an increasing number of cautionary
>tales of biocontrol agents gone awry. For instance, for decades Los Angeles
>County mosquito-control officials have handed out free bucketloads of small
>insect-eating fish from the southeastern United States that researchers say
>also has a devastating appetite for tadpoles. Despite warnings that it
>should only be stocked into ponds, not free-running streams, in the last
>decade the Gambusia minnow--'Damnboosia' to its detractors--somehow made its
>way into once fishless streams in the Santa Monica Mountains, ecologists Lee
>Kats and Jeff Goodsell of Pepperdine University in Los Angeles reported last
>month in Conservation Biology. Now, the fish appears to be eating its way
>through populations of increasingly rare Pacific tree frogs and two other
>amphibians, just as it has displaced native fish and amphibians in New
>Zealand and elsewhere. The government 'should not be handing out the fish
>to anyone who asks,' says Kats.
>
>Science, vol 285, 17 September 1999, p.1843.
>
>Jay DeLong
>thirdwind at attnet
>Olympia, WA, USA
>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Walter R. Courtenay, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor of Zoology and Assistant Chair
Department of Biological Sciences
Florida Atlantic University
777 Glades Road <* ) } } } } ><
Boca Raton, FL 33431-0991 USA
Phone:(561)297-3331; Fax: (561)297-2749
e-mail: courtenw at fau.edu
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