Thailand’s experience with an invasive fish is showing just how badly things can go wrong when a species enters uncharted territory.
What’s happening?
The blackchin tilapia has wreaked havoc on the Southeast Asian country’s waterways, spreading to 17 provinces in recent years, as the BBC reported.
Like other invasive species, it is devouring and outcompeting native species to the detriment of ecosystems. Another issue is economic and could cost the country almost $300 million.
“The core problem is that the blackchin tilapia prey on small fish, shrimp, and snail larvae, which are among Thailand’s important aquaculture products,” the BBC stated.
The West African fish may have escaped from a Charoen Pokphand Foods laboratory after the company imported 2,000 of them in 2010, or they could have boomed after being smuggled into the country.
Why is this important?
As the BBC noted, it doesn’t matter how it happened but what comes next. It’s a path being taken by communities around the globe, as human actions and the warming climate allow invasive plants and animals to colonize areas far and wide.
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“We will not pass a devastated ecosystem to the next generation,” Bangkok lawmaker Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat told the outlet.
Because the tilapia can bear 500 fingerlings at once, the government has released Asian seabass and long-whiskered catfish to prey on the fish and doubled its bounty to $0.42 per kilogram.
Residents are being encouraged to eat the catch too, but experts told the BBC that ousting the fish may not be possible.
“I don’t see the possibility of eradicating it because we cannot limit its range,” Suwit Wuthisuthimethavee of Walailak University said. “When it is in nature, it reproduces continuously.”
What else is being done about the blackchin tilapia?
In another measure, the government has genetically modified tilapia, which it hopes to release by the end of the year, to produce sterile offspring.
“Who will win?” Nattacha asked the BBC. “We need the people to follow the case closely; otherwise this matter will be quiet, and we will pass on this kind of environment to the next generation.”
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