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Walking Catfish Storm Parking Lot – News – nbc4i.com — Apparently these fish are a plague in Florida.
Rebecka Bell thought something was fishy as she sat in her boyfriend’s car at the Shoppes at Shelby Crossing parking lot.
Looking out the car window Sunday, she spotted a fish, then another and then another.
“It was the weirdest thing because neither one of us have seen anything like that before,” Bell said of about 30 catfish scattered about the parking lot and on the pavement behind the shopping center.
Most of them were moving, she said. A man was scooping them up with a piece of cardboard to return them to the storm drain.
They are walking catfish, a non-native fish, according to Paul Shafland, a senior scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at the non-native fish research lab in Boca Raton.
The walking catfish’s ability to breathe out of water is unique. They can also move short distances on land much better than any other native fish can, Shafland said. They basically shuffle along using their pectoral fin. They will eat all the small fish in a pond, and then when the rain comes, they will travel across land as long as they can stay damp, he said.
“We’ve got major, major problems with them at the farm,” Calway said. “We are having to raise fish above ground in artificial above-ground ponds because of the walking catfish.”
Apparently some idiots brought them over from Southeast Asia and instead of killing them when they are on land, the local Floridian dingbats are putting them back in the water.
that THAT intelligent Design
This is only one of many species introduced in areas where they crowd out the native species: Kudzu in the SE, Pampas Grass and Pepper Trees in Southern California, pigs and guavas in Hawaii, rabbits in Australia. The list goes on and on. Whether some Floridians kill a few will make little difference.
Something fishy about this story.
ok I’ll quit now.
they are very tasty.
These sound like the snake heads that are also a SE Asia fish. They were found in a pond in suburban D.C. The Fish and Game department killed everything in the pond by using arsenic. Then they drained the pond and found 18 dead snake heads. A few months later the same species of fish was found in the Potomac River by some fishermen. The Washington Post speculated at the time that they were introduced into the D.C. area because they are considred a delicacy in China.
Are you sure they’re not lawyers? You know the old joke, what’s the difference between a lawyer and a catfish?
One’s a bottom-feeding scum-sucker … and the other is a fish.
There seem to be no shortage of morons in the world
Another illegal immigration problem.
“And instead of killing them when they are on land the local Floridian dingbats are putting them back in the water.”
It takes a higher level of education to commit a newer act of stupidity.
I lived in Florida for 23 years, and have seen walking catfish many times.
They are only one of the many non-native creatures that now thrive in the state – and they are all introduced by humans. That includes gigantic snakes that are large enough to eat alligators, now propagating successfully in the Everglades.
It’s legal to import and sell (so called) “exotic” pets. When they get too difficult to keep – as they always do – their owners can’t stand the idea of killing Snookums the boa constrictor, so they are “set free” in the Everglades.
As if that isn’t bad enough, The State of Florida imports non-native creatures for various “good” (stupid) reasons. For instance:
– non-native aquatic plants clogging every body of water, just import Tilapia to eat them. They didn’t eat the plants, so the new story was that they are game fish, and would attract tourist fishermen. They don’t bite hooks. No natural enemies, so . . . too many Tilapia crowding out native spcies.
– They wanted to attract out of state fishermen, so they imported and set lose the Peacock Bass. Say goodbye to the native Largemouth Bass, and other species. To Peacocks, they are like candy.
– Parakeets, parrots, plants of all kinds, snakes, lizards – you name it.
Here is the current list of exotic freshwater fish: Black Acara, Blue Tilapia, Brown Hoplo, Bullseye Snakehead, Butterfly Peacock, Clown Knifefish, Common Carp, Grass Carp, Jaguar Guapote, Mayan Cichlid, Midas Cichlid, Oscar,
Spotted Tilapia, Suckermouth Catfishes, Swamp Eel, and Walking Catfish.
If it doesn’t belong in Florida – it’s thriving there. It makes me sick.
Thanks for reading my rant.
The only question I have to ask is: “Are they good with tartar sauce and vinegar?”
Walking catfish are nothing new in Florida. My stepfather, who died in 1983 often spoke of them. He was last in Florida in the 1950s.
So, while they are non-native, they have been there for a long, long time.
And no, I don’t know if they are good eatin’.
Stu
Thanks for the informed and intelligent comment.
#1—I think you meant “Take THAT.”
I also live in Florida and have seen this exact thing. I work mid-day until 11pm and generally take my lunch break late. I usually eat out in my car because otherwise I don’t actually get a break – people keep wanting me to fix stuff. I don’t get paid lunch breaks so screw that.
Anyway while munching away in my car I’ve seen foxes, egrets, cranes, racoons, ibis, bald eagles, snakes and lots of other wildlife as next door to my office complex is a cow pasture.
One night it was raining out and I noticed movement in the parking lot next to me. A big catfish was just flopping around, not even close to any water. I’d guess it was making it’s way from one retention pond to another.
No idea if they’re good eating, but the ones we used to catch in the canal behind my parents place as a kid tasted fine. Don’t know if those were the walking variety though. Probably contained about 10,000% of your daily allowance of mercury, lead and other pollutants too, but they tasted OK fried with lemon juice.
They are edible. They were brought over in the pet trade.
This how lion fish ended up in the gulf eating out coral reefs.
#10 – Stu,
Nice rant. Thanks for sharing. I go on similar rants quite often. I wasn’t aware of how many invasives there were in Florida, even though I had heard of the snakes eating alligators.
Unfortunately, invasives are very hard to irradiate. Years ago, I gave extra donations to help the Galapagos get rid of the feral goats and pigs. That was hard for them to do and they are large diurnal land creatures.
Of course, I felt bad for the goats and pigs. It wasn’t their fault. Unfortunately, air lifting them out would have been a tad less than practical.
Yeah sorry Kanjy (#14) . I was trying to type fast before the CEO got to my end of the hallway.
Living in FL I’ve seen this rare fish when it has flooded here during hurricane season. They come up when storm drains overflood. I wouldn’t eat them, as the storm drains are similar to sewers. They’re covered in mucus to protect themselves while out of the water.