I don't generally advocate in favor of slaughtering fish for sport, but as the invasive Asian Carp takes over much of the waterways in the Eastern US, I've got to give a nod to a worthy new sport I've just discovered: aerial bowfishing.
It's just as viciously destructive as you think: men (mostly) take to the water in speedboats and shoot the fish as they flee the roar of the propeller by flinging themselves into the air.
I have never tried aerial bowfishing, but I salute the practitioners of this pastime; it looks like it takes a lot of skill to skewer an airborne carp.
As gratuitous as this violence is, though -- it looks as though the fish are thrown back, likely to die, after being run through -- it doesn't seem to be an effective means of population control. There are millions of fish, from just below Lake Michigan all the way to the Mississippi River Delta. And they're taking over.
So, what do we do? How about eat them. One video I watched* mentioned something about a power plant and mercury poisoning, so that should makes us think a little. But would it be too much to ask to get the Department of Fish and Wildlife to spear a few, test them, and tell us whether or not these things are safe for us snack on?
(*there was a video of this in the sports section of the online New York Times today, which I saw first. But this one's just better.)
Tags: Animal Breeding, Animal Science, Food Chain, Green Science, Water
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