Asian Carp. ABC News today aired a report by Eric Horng about a chef who has developed recipes to make use of what is now a dangerous nuisance in the Mississippi and threatens to invade the Great Lakes very soon, the Asian carp. When I first heard about this fish becoming a hated invader, I immediately thought what anyone of any sense would think: catch and eat it. Make it a food fish, for people if it is palatable, for pet cats, zoo animals, and livestock if it is not found tasty by people. What could be simpler? A nuisance becomes a very inexpensive, plentiful, domestic source of food for multiple groups at home, and perhaps even, as canned, for export.
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Moreover, if this fish grows well in the wild, it might well become a source of food for people and livestock in the Third World. Why haven't the powers that be, who have been agonizing over what to do about this invader, seen that it might be a huge BOON to the Nation and the world?
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Because they're stupid, that's why. If overfishing threatens the fish of the oceans, surely we can fish the Asian carp to tolerable levels, or even overfish it to the edge of extinction. A country that made the passenger pigeon extinct and nearly did the same to the bison can surely control the Asian carp.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 4,376 — for Israel.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 7:19 PM