Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Tilapia -VS- Louisiana DWF

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It would seem that Tilapia were discovered In the Southern-most area of Louisiana below New Orleans. They are planning a complete all species erradication. They are palnning a "massive assault" that will include more than 100 LDWF employees over 2 days. Their spread "could result in drastic environmental, recreational and economical impacts," notably they would displace native species. This area has had a couple of mild winters. I think the impact would be larger bass and redfish, less algae and invasive plants, happy fisherman eating tilapia and the problem would take care of itself the next cold winter. Do you guys agree with LDWF strategy?

Bob G

How big is the body of water? Or did I miss that?

The article did not say other than it was in a contained area.

THEY'RE NOT MINE!!!!!!!







I hope!!!

I think it's a reactive strike rather than comtemplative. Tilapia could be a fantastic asset for the area. But, the state is charged with protecting native species of fish and their habitat rather than looking at the practical, common sense side of fisheries management. Their mission is completely different (in most cases) than private landowners and private pond managers.
State agencies deal with the law and politics of the law rather than the pure biology of a situation. I learned that here in Texas years ago when our regulatory agencies made and changed the rules about fish here. It doesn't necessarily have a thing to do with the biology. So, I wouldn't expect much different than Louisiana's decision. They don't have the "right" to determine tilapia to be a good addition to any system, if possessing those fish are against the law. The law predisposes biological facts.
As a biologist in the private sector, I would give those tilapia a standing ovation.
As a law-abiding citizen, I understand the decision, as backward as it seems.

You have to wonder about the mentality involved here.

The quote about it causing enviornmental harm--most notably that they would displace native species....... So LDWF decides to kill EVERYTHING, INCLUDING the NATIVE species before there is a POSSIBLE problem with the tilapia.

ewest, maybe you could send them a legal question that asks if they have done an impact survey to see if there is a native species that ONLY lives in the kill zone?.?.

I have to agree with LDWF. Much cleaner, more productive waters near New Orleans WOULD be a bad thing! People might want to return and they would lose the sympathy vote!

These guys are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

However, I wonder if they did an impact study? Probably not but Lusk is right about them not having the right to see what happens. I wonder how they determined that the offenders were only inhabiting the specific area?

No one can really know the long term effects of adding any non-native fish to existing waters. Frankly, the effects may not be seen within one's lifetime.

Then, it comes to question as what constitutes "non-native?"

How many thousands of years does a fish have to be around to be considered "native?"

I know in Hawaii, tilapia have completely denuded a lot of public lakes. What impact has this had? I dont' know...

Doc Bob,

I'm hearing rumors that tilapia are occasionally caught in local bayous and lakes, so they may be more widespread then the LDWF knows. I guess that's because we haven't had a cold winter here in a good while.

As usual Bob is spot on. We have the same situation up here in the Great lakes states with the VHS virus where politics trumps good science. The government seems good at knee jerk reactions that cost lots of money or cost someone else lots of money when thinking things out w/o political pressure would have been a better approach.

I don't sell some frozen dead species of gamefish to taxidermists in Texas because of a law a former governor signed into existence. Texas has a list of "Commercially Protected Finfish" which includes largemouth bass, smallmouth, hybrid striped bass, black crappie, and walleye. If I sell any of these species the buyer has to buy a Texas Finfish Import License for $75.00 and I have to purchase a Texas Retail Fish Dealer License for $70.00. To me this is nothing more than trade protectionism as there is no reason to worry about the sale of privately raised dead frozen fish from another state. (The prices are probably higher now as this was a few years ago.)

For those of you in the know, especially Bob, will the rotenone kill every last Tilapia? Every rotenone kill I've witnessed up here the intended species for extirpation eventually comes back (in our case common carp) and the kill itself runs in to the thousands of dollars.

As hardy as this species is (other than cold temps) and as prolific, that wouldn't surprise me a bit.

I don't know the exact make up of the BOW they are treating but IME, Cecil is very right. When you treat large open bodies of water, what ever invasive species you're trying to kill off, always comes back... They found snakeheads in a local pond in MD a few years back. They did a complete kill of it and found several hundred snakeheads. That was a small pond... Then the next year snakeheads were found in the Potomac River. Thankfully the VDGIF and the MDNR were smart enough to realize, they're here to stay and to start studying their impact. Only time will tell how the snakeheads will impact the largemouth bass fishery or native fish. Many are very worried about them destroying the largemouth bass fishery, for one largemouth are not even native to the Potomac and in Japan, the Japanesse are having the complete opposite problem, the newly introduced largemouth are out competing the snakeheads!

And bluegills introduced to Europe are causing problems too! I guess if an exotic species can find a niche it can go to town!

If Louisiana pond owners wanted to petition for legalizing the stocking of Tilapia in private ponds, where would you guys think we should start? Mr. Lusk brings out a good point that the LDWF is by law bound to oppose such an issue. I assume we would have to rally a group of wildlife biologist as well as studies on the effects in states like Texas, Alabama, and Florida. I just wonder who specifically would you propose such an issue.

Dr Bob