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The lake northeast of Columbia is the farthest east the large, ugly creature has been found, officials say, and its presence almost certainly means somebody brought it there.
Scott Lamprecht, S.C. Department of Natural Resources biologist, told The (Charleston) Post and Courier that a 10-inch alligator gar can be purchased online. They can grow to 10 feet and weigh 200 pounds, making them a prize for bowfishers because "they are big, thrash like an alligator and are enough of a novelty if not a delicacy in some restaurants."
We humans, despite our position at the top of the intelligence pyramid, can do some very dumb things. Not thinking about the ramifications of introducing non-native species of plants and animals into an ecosystem ranks right up there. You'd think we would have learned something from our experience with kudzu, but not so. And it's getting expensive. Economists who have studied the issue say invasive species have caused billions of dollars in economic damage, as well as threatening biodiversity and human health.
The federal government is engaged now in an $80 million effort to stop the advance of Asian carp in our freshwater rivers. The fish are aggressive eaters, consuming as much as 40 percent of their body weight a day in plankton, and frequently beat out native fish for food, threatening those populations, The Washington Post reports. Five states have sued to try to close two locks in the waterway system linking Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River.
The fish were imported in the 1970s to help wastewater treatment facilities in the South keep their retention ponds clean, the Post reports. Mississippi River flooding allowed the fish to escape and then move into the Missouri, Kansas and Illinois rivers. Some species can grow to more than
100 pounds. Fishermen transporting and using them as bait fish are helping to spread them.
Silver carp -- one of two Asian carp species found in the rivers -- have an annoying habit of leaping into the air when disturbed, sometimes whapping boaters upside the head. That can be quite a blow from a 20- to 40-pound fish.
Here's a quick rundown of just some of the creatures officials are trying to beat back: Giant burmese pythons and other constrictors in the Everglades; quagga and zebra mussels; Asian tiger shrimp; snails; sea lamprey; Amazonian pacu; and smallmouth buffalo fish.
South Carolina lawmakers this year passed new rules to try to control the spread of feral hogs. It is now illegal to capture wild hogs and transport them to other spots in the state. It also is now legal to hunt them at night.
We're very familiar in the Lowcountry with the problems wild hogs can cause. State officials say the hogs have spread unnaturally fast in recent years, suggesting some human help.
"The rate of dispersal is about
70 mph, which is about how fast the trucks move on interstates," said Jack Mayer, a wild-hog expert with the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken.
Hunters trap hogs and move them to create new hunting opportunities. Mayer says that's why wild hogs, formerly only a problem in Southeastern states, can be found in 45 states.
State officials also have raised alarms about cogongrass, described as one of the world's worst weeds. Two patches were found in northern Beaufort County, on St. Helena and Lady's islands. The plant is toxic to native vegetation and burns at a much higher temperature than native plants, putting trees, particularly longleaf pines, at greater risk from fire.
The plant spread in part because people thought it was pretty, dug it up and moved it.
One of the ways invasive species are spread is through ballast water of international cargo ships. Unfortunately, there are no federal rules on treating ballast water. Some states have put in place their own rules, but the Post reports that has only encouraged shipping companies to seek states with the weakest regulations, putting other states at risk.
In 2008, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would have regulated treatment of ballast water, but the measure died in the Senate.
Such regulations make a lot more sense than dealing with the aftermath of such invasions. We humans need to get smarter about this.
