Domestic fishing enthusiasts may even dream of catching a hundred-pound fish. In recent days, a fishing enthusiast caught two large herring weighing hundreds of pounds in the Danjiangkou Reservoir in Hubei Province, which attracted the attention of many netizens.
How easy is it to catch big fish in China? But in foreign countries, such "giant water monsters" seem to abound, and fishing experts in the net can catch hundreds of catties of huge objects from time to time.
In the eyes of domestic fishing enthusiasts, such scenery is really enviable, but there is also a hint of worry: will they flood in China?
Such "water monsters" have set off waves in China, and many places have begun to eliminate them after discovering them, and there has even been a nationwide craze for looking for alligator gars.
Weighs 170 pounds! Foreign fishing experts captured a giant "water monster" - alligator gar
Recently, Strait Fishing Net reported that an expert angler in the net, Art Weston, caught not only a 180-pound snapping turtle but also a 188-pound (170-pound) alligator gar on the other side of the sea (Sam Rayburn Lake).
It is reported that after several days of nesting and looking for fish, Weston used a large piece of carp meat as bait and finally ushered in the bite of the giant.
After feeling the violent pull of the rod from underwater, Weston knew that a big fish had bitten. After more than 1 hour of hard work, he finally pulled the fish out of the water and got it to the boat.
After weighing, this is a giant alligator gar weighing 170 pounds, weighing more than an adult male, such a giant water monster is really rare in China.
But Weston had caught at least a few of these big fish.
Back in April 2022, he caught a 128kg alligator gar at the same location, which was even larger than the one he caught.
Domestic netizens changed color when they heard this, and they would rather pump water than eliminate it
Such a big fish makes many fishing friends envious.
However, the "water monster" of the alligator gar has made domestic netizens change their color and worry that it will flood. Two years ago, there was a wave of eradication of alligator gars in China. Some localities prefer to pump water at any cost and remove it at any given cost.
In August 2022, two alligator gars appeared in Yunchan Lake in Ruzhou, Henan Province, which lasted nearly a month and pumped nearly 200,000 cubic meters of water.
This incident has caused huge repercussions in China, giving many netizens a vivid science lesson on "invasive fish", and also setting off a "pumping fever" across the country. Many communities and parks have adopted the method of "pumping" to eliminate alligator gars.
Like what:
In the landscape pond of Puding Community in Fuzhou, residents found that the number of large fish farmed is getting smaller and smaller, and some of the fish have obvious scars.
Subsequently, some residents discovered that the "strange fish" resembled an alligator gar, and the property pumped water again, only to find a ferocious alligator gar......
In Liyue Lake, Lijiang, Yunnan Province, in order to catch the alligator gar that appears repeatedly, the local area used a number of pumping machines to pump water for 4 days before the alligator gar was caught.
Of course, in the process of eliminating alligator gars, fishing enthusiasts have also made great contributions, and the fishing rods in their hands have come in handy.
Compared with the time-consuming and laborious operation of "pumping", it is more efficient to catch alligator gars by fishing, and it also allows many fishing enthusiasts to enjoy a fishing feast.
Domestic fishing experts are playing the role of ecological protectors in their own way.
Intruder or controllable "water monster"? Expert: It's still preventable
Why are alligator gars so powerful? Will it make people smell and change color?
There are two reasons for this: first, it is not a native fish, it is a completely invasive alien species, and basically has no natural predators in domestic waters, which will pose a serious threat to indigenous fishes; The second is that people rarely have the opportunity to see this fish, and due to the lack of understanding about it, they feel overwhelmed by their appearance.
The biggest concern is the fear that they will overflow.
Native to North America, the alligator gar is also a "living fossil" fish, and their population history dates back more than 100 million years, which shows that it is quite vigorous.
According to common sense, alligator gars have no natural predators in domestic waters, which gives them the theoretical potential to become invasive species and become infested. However, despite the fact that alligator gars have been present in the country for more than two decades, they have not been overrun, and even in front of exotic fish such as tilapia and scavengers, they are not worth mentioning.
In the local waters of Guangdong, Fujian and other places, the scavengers in the rivers have been flooded, but the alligator gar, which looks more powerful, has not formed a climate.
For the alligator gar, an uninvited guest, relevant domestic experts have already begun to study their impact on the ecology.
Among them, Liu Huanzhang, a researcher at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, analyzed: alligator gars in the wild should come from artificial discarding and stocking. Alligator gars may seem to be large and ferocious by nature, but they also have relative weaknesses, and they do not have the potential to spread widely in the wild.
The reasons for this may be due to the following factors:
First, alligator gars mature sexually late. Alligator gars take about 10 years to reach sexual maturity and be reproductive. Most of the alligator gars found in China are still young and have a very limited reproductive capacity.
Moreover, alligator gars are quite cold-blooded, they do not have the habit of protecting their young like black fish, and most of the hatched juveniles will be eaten by other fish, and not many can really grow into adult fish.
Second, many domestic environments are not suitable for their growth. Alligator gars are adapted to live in water temperatures of around 25°C, and when they fall below 10°C, they not only do not reproduce, but they do not even survive. As a result, in the cold waters of northern China, their vigor decreases and it is difficult for them to survive the winter.
Third, after the alligator gar incident in Ruzhou in 2022, there has been a consensus on this fish: it is better to pump water than to eradicate it.
In such a situation, the alligator gar will be hit hard once it shows its head. In addition, coupled with the large number of domestic fishing enthusiasts, the waters where alligator gars appear will definitely usher in the encirclement and suppression of many anglers.
Therefore, experts believe that the number of alligator gars in domestic natural waters is not optimistic, and it is still in a state of "preventable and controllable".
At the same time, Professor Liu Huanzhang pointed out that some people originally farmed alligator gars out of curiosity, but later as the adult fish grew up and ate an amazing amount of food, they were forced to secretly throw them away. There are also those who release their lives out of ignorance and with simple and good thoughts.
As everyone knows, allowing this alien harmful species to be abandoned in the wild will cause great "evil" to local fishery resources. While experts believe that alligator gars are still "preventable", we must not leave them to chance, and we must remain vigilant and take steps to prevent them from becoming truly invasive.
Resources:
Strait Fishing Nets – 2.2 Meadow Water Monster 188-pound alligator gar out of the water.
Yangtze River Daily - Experts from the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences doxxed alligator gar.