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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."
How is any gene that causes infertility suppose to multiply or spread anywhere? It's absurd on the face of it.
"Infertility is hereditary. If your parents didn't have any children, you probably won't have any either."
I grew up next to a small river. As a child, my friends and I spent many afternoons fishing in the river for bass, sunfish, and catfish. In the late 1980s a trend began among irresponsible fishermen of using "feeder" goldfish, most of which were tiny orange carp, as bait because they were cheaper than minnows. At the end of the day, those guys would toss any extra bait into the river, where they thrived and grew to huge sizes. Native fish were wiped out, followed by the huge snapping turtles that could no longer survive in the screwed-up ecosystem. Those damned goldfish became the kudzu of our water, weren't any fun to fish for, and now the only people who fish in those waters are illegal immigrants desperate for food.
If something like this were done with those stupid pet goldfish, it would be a great boon for a lot of fishing spots that might eventually be destroyed by idiots using non-native bait.
In general, one would think that introducing a GM freshwater fish in Australia would be a safe bet for containment. However...
There is NO WAY that this gene could be contained in the small "backwater basin" in Australia. There are enough other locales in the world (the majority of the US, and its Great Lakes for one) in which carp are despised, and enough motivated people with mobility, that there would quickly spring up a "black market" in these GM carp for export to ponds, lakes, and rivers abroad.
The cure for cancer is coming: Reovirus
Unlike certain other organisms, interspecies gene transfer in fish is not something that happens every day. In weeds, it happens due to bacteria living in the root nodules of the weed and visiting neighboring plants.
I do not know if gene transfer is documented in other organisms like fish but would consider it to have a very low success rate.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Jeron, please tell me how this gene will travel among the fresh water and why salt water would stop it??
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
My later comment should have been a reply to yours, but we were responding contemporaneously...
The fact that the carp has been introduced everywhere by man, and is so ubiquitous, practically guarantees it'll be smuggled out of Australia to other "carp-infested" locales.
It would also be an insidious attack against the Asian countries who rely upon carp for food - by releasing the GM fry into farms, lakes, and rivers in SE Asia.
The cure for cancer is coming: Reovirus
It is curious how external species are able to out-compete local species fine-tuned to the local environment time and time again.
One theory is that local preditors have yet to adjust to the new species, giving it freer range. Another is that isolation has kept local species from some of the evolutionary advances going on elsewhere in the world.
Table-ized A.I.
So,
If there is no way the carp could spread anywhere else how did they get there in the first place?
Right, some idiot who thinks he can make mother nature better whether it be by purposefully bringing an animal to Australia, taking an animal from Australia to another continent, GMing an animal and then accidently having it appear in another locality, etc.
I don't doubt Australia has a serious "pest" problem. But given human nature and Australia's totally bad luck with introduced species, I do think they would be incredibly careful doing this sort of thing.
So, when you actually *need* to overfish a certain area and reduce a species population.... we turn to genetic manipulation. Smart. Smart.
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Think about it - if a gene causes the birth of only males, then it is not beneficial to the carp population.
What has Darwin taught us about non-beneficial genes again?
That's right. They eventually drop out of the gene pool.
Basic evolution, everybody.
From a purely Australian perspective I agree, but there is the risk this is not purely AUstralian. What if 'infected' Carp were released in Europe/Asia? Then gradually the species would be eliminated from the entire world. A habitat has been saved for a few species but a other habitats have been irrecovably damaged.
The local solution has to be balanced against the global risk. Australia has already had one massive failure regarding immigrant species 'control' which resulted in the deaths of 100s of millions of rabbits outside Australia yet failured to tackle the problem at home. I only hope the Carp 'solution' is a little better thought through. The best solution to population control is that old method of predation... we just need to find an effective way to predate predators.
karma karma karma karma karma chameleon, you come and go, you come and go.
As far as I can tell, this gene manipulation doesn't cause infertility. It just prevents female offspring. You see, the point is that the male offspring have a certain likihood of possessing this gene, so males with this gene will also only produce male offspring. If these males were to somehow migrate and begin breeding in other populations, then this new population will be skewed towards males. The concern is that if enough of these males are able to spread and breed in other carp populations, then the species as a whole is at risk - too many males not enough females, not unlike the geek population. ;)
If all you have are silver bullets, everything looks like a werewolf.