back to article Welsh battle killer shrimp invasion

The Welsh have taken to nets and catfood to battle a Caspian crustacean invasion that could have a "devastating impact on native species". According to the BBC, the 3cm Dikerogammarus villosus shrimp has over the last decade made its way from the Black and Caspian seas via arteries such as the Danube and Rhine Canal. …

COMMENTS

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  1. JimC

    Biosecurity...

    This country needs some some... the smart money has to be that its come in on imported fishing bait... Got to say though If its got into three known sites already the chances of stopping it have to approach zero.

  2. There's a bee in my bot net

    Controling marine wildlife?

    Why not ask BP for help. They are great at controlling marine wildlife populations...

  3. Sean O'Connor 1

    Yum?

    Do they taste nice?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I'm glad to see someone else is thinking along the same lines as me

      I saw the photo and immediately thought tempura the buggers and serve them with a wedge of lime.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Are they heading for a certain Rift in Wales, around the Cardiff area?

    If so, they won't be our problem for long. Probably off to fight some exo-skeletal internecine fracas. Before being swalled by a small dog due to a miscalculation of scale.

  5. DrXym

    Does this mean?

    We'll see lots of menus appearing telling people how to cook and eat the menance? I recall something similar happening with regard to red crayfish.

  6. Ilsa Loving

    How do they taste?

    Sounds like a prime new Welsh export.

  7. I know better

    Yes, yes but...

    What does it taste like?

  8. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    Stop

    Just tax the little buggers...

    Seems to be the solution Gov Plc are using to solve all of their other problems, so why not this one?

  9. Steve the Cynic
    FAIL

    Did the man from the Environment Agency...

    ... really call this shrimp a "fish"?

    Shrimp are crustaceans, like crabs, lobsters, and woodlice. They are not fish.

  10. GuyC
    Headmaster

    Fish

    "We know from research done in other parts of the world that the spread of the this fish can have a devastating effect on the ecology.", sorry, I think you'll find it is a crustacean, if the powers that be can't even tell the difference we've got real problems!

  11. Nick Galloway
    Coat

    Caspian sea monster!

    All this about a Caspian sea killer and you missed the opportunity for a tech angle by referencing the Caspian Sea Monster, more formally known as the Ekranoplan. This 'wing in ground effect' vehicle 'flew' only metres from the surface of the water at up to 500 knots, which by all accounts was very stressful for the pilot and decidedly dodgy if you were in a small boat in the flight path.

    The Soviets are getting their revenge on the decadent West even decades after the fall of the wall.

  12. Tom 7

    The only way to get rid of them

    would be to nuke Cardiff bay.

    let me know if they do - Weston might be worth a visit with a surf board.

  13. War Monger

    I have a hard time believing

    that tiny shrimp pose a real threat to huge Wales.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      ..."that tiny shrimp pose a real threat to huge Wales"

      You krilled me with that joke.

    2. Dagg Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Ok what about virus

      They are incredibility small compared to a human but they still manage to cause a considerable threat!

      Bird flu anyone?

  14. Yesnomaybe

    Tempting...

    ...the prawn with catfood... Hmm. This must be an invader, not from the Black or Caspian sea, but rather from District 9 in South Africa. I think we should be told.

  15. Triggerfish

    RE: Biosecurity

    Might not have come in on bait as far as I know they aren't sure how they got there, but quite a lot of aquatics animals can spread by ding things like having sticky eggs to attach to wading birds and such. It can take massive swings in salinity as well so its hard to say how it got here.

    Technically its not a shrimp either.

  16. Wile E. Veteran
    Flame

    Tiny things can cause REAL problems

    I have a hard time believing #

    that tiny shrimp pose a real threat to huge Wales.

    Oh, I don't know, some little things called "zebra mussels" have virtually taken over the entire North American Great Lakes, clogging water intake pipes, slowing freighters, fouling both commercial and recreational fishing equipment etc. Just because they are tiny doesn't mean they can't cause really huge problems.

    Now we're dealing with round-headed gobys, two species of Asian carp and several other nasties that either kill native species directly or kill the microscopic plankton upon which they feed.

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