> would have been more except that most people live in cooler parts of the
> country. Swordtails, guppies, and platties can be pretty common in some
> places around Brisbane. How did they get there? What about the tilapias
> that are spreading around Qld? What about weatherloaches around
> Melbourne and Sydney? How do you think they got there? It's a pity
> Adrian can't visit Florida so he can get an idea of what could happen
> around Darwin or Cairns without proper controls on both fish farms and
> aquarists. He should also visit western USA where it is impossible to
> visit virtually any streams and find a purely native fish fauna like it
> is presently possible to do throughout the bulk of Australia. And sure,
> many of the species were not aquarium releases, but some clearly were.
I think this is a pretty good summary of the situation so far - plus we
need to mention that the chances of feral exotic establishment is greater
if the habitat is altered, and that is not caused by the hobbyist. l.
The other thing to mention here is that an even larger number of species
have been reported over the years but the "colonies" have failed to become
permanent - perhaps because the progressive habitat degradation has been
too much even for them ;-)
> You won't find anyone who will argue that hobbiests are the greatest
> problem when it comes to introduced fishes, it is well known that most
> were made in the past by well intentioned, though misguided governments
> and it has been repeated across the world and still is happening in many
> places today. Anglers are also major contributers, more so in the USA,
> but it's on the increase in Oz. Some Australian state governments have
> taken actions to prevent the translocation of fishes both by govt and
> anglers.
I understand that moves are afoot to ban the use of live bait for fishing
except for that caught onsite.That may help to avoid another Eachamensis
debacle.
> I'll agree with Adrian that many of the moves
> the government has made or are thinking of making may not be based on
good
> reasoning. I'd rather see a program put in place for the evaluation of
> all aquarium fishes to eliminate those that are an unreasonable threat
> to the Australian environment. I know a system like this was being
> developed a few years ago but I don't know if it was ever adopted. It'd
> be better to get rid of the hand waving and work towards a more
> accountable system. Then the reasonings can be put down on paper in a
> clearer fashion and then you have something more tangable to fight over.
>
Agreed. But the reasoning will have to be a bit more convincing than vague
possible/theoretical risk statements if there is to be respect and
compliance and the rules will have to be implemented fairly and
consistently.
Cheers
Bruce H.