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Australia To Use GM To Control Carp
mskfisher writes "Yahoo! News is running an AFP story on Australia's efforts to control the carp population using a 'male-only' gene. The gene will prevent the carp, considered a pest in Australia, from producing female offspring. The carp has wiped out some 90% of the native south Australian fish population, namely perch and bass. They do not, however, mention any ways of controlling the spread of this gene in the wild, besides the obvious death of any affected population."
Since all carp that I know of are freshwater fish, it stands to reason by that assumption that the species was introduced by man. In fact the article mentions the word "introduced" but neglects to mention by what means. Had it been by natural cause, the choice of word would commonly be "migration".
As such it would be next to impossible to spread this gene outside of Australia, where the species isn't wanted anyway. So unless I am wrong in my basic assumption that man caused this in the first place, the problem is contained.
Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. -Ayn Rand
Anything which reduces or limits the breeding ability of a species will naturally reduce within the population. It's called evolution. It'll just take a few generations. After all, we can't even kill bloody bacteria now.
How about we just catch and eat the carp?
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
"perch and bass" are not native in Australia. Perches are found in Europe, North America, and northern Asia. Bass are found in North America only.
For a better fish context - see Fishbase.
So, what do I care if one introduced fish species eradicates other introduced.
Carp aren't good to eat, and they're very boney. The problem is that they're wiping out the fish that are good to eat, such as bass and perch, as the article says.
Mud carp are freshwater fish. Australia is an independent continent that has no connection to anywhere else. There's no way it could spread. Also, the carp are an introduced species so wiping them out is very desirable as they completely ruin the local river ecosystems. However, they've been trying to do that with rabbits, boar and foxes for about 100 years now with no success. I doubt this one will either.
Life is complete only for brief intervals in between toys or projects -- John Dalton
Absolutely delicious when fresh killed, breaded, and deep fried.
The fine bones are only in the tail end, the center part provides large fillets which have only 4 or 5 huge bones which are impossible to miss.
When dressing the carp, you must remove a gland from the inside without breaking it, or you will spoil the taste of the carp.
Carp is, btw, a traditional xmas meal in Czech Republic
Ok. Australia is an island last time I checked. The carp would have to be transported outside of Australia to allow this gene to propogate. Carp are fresh water fish. They die in salt water. Interspecies gene transfer from a fresh water fish to a salt water fish, to the same fresh water species somewhere else is a large stretch of the imagination.
RE: sharks. You seem to be missing the fact that sharks are mostly salt water creatures and you would have to breed fresh water sharks that have a taste for carp.
Fact: by reducing the viable reproductive population of females, a population will crash as the female die out. You need females to grow a population, not males. Still, it would take many years for the carp populations to die out. Carp live for a long time.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
I wouldn't count on that. A big issue in the San Francisco Bay area has been the phenomenon of foreign tankers emptying their balast chambers (or some kind of huge water-containing chamber) in the SFBay, thereby introducing tons of non-native species to the area.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
This thousand-carp batch's children will all be male.
That 10,000-carp batch's children will also all be male.
That 100,000-carp batch's children will also be male.
And so on. The existing males will have to work extra hard to find females, and eventually, one species (ether the GM ones or the non-GM ones, quickly followed by the GM ones) will die out, with considerably less fish left afterwards.