07/16/2021
From NBC News:
Worries over racism, waterways inspire push to rename fish
“We wanted to move away from any terms that cast Asian culture and people in a negative light,” a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official said of the switch from “Asian carp” to “invasive carp.”
Fish are Asian people and have Asian culture? Why I was I never informed of this?
July 15, 2021, 10:57 AM PDT / Source: Associated Press
By The Associated PressTRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Minnesota state Sen. Foung Hawj was never a fan of the “Asian carp” label commonly applied to four imported fish species that are wreaking havoc in the U.S. heartland, infesting numerous rivers and bearing down on the Great Lakes.
But the last straw came when an Asian business delegation arriving at the Minneapolis airport encountered a sign reading “Kill Asian Carp.” It was a well-intentioned plea to prevent spread of the invasive fish. But the message was off-putting to the visitors.
Hawj and fellow Sen. John Hoffman in 2014 won approval of a measure requiring that Minnesota agencies refer to the fish as “invasive carp,” despite backlash from the late radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, who ridiculed it as political correctness.
Are they called “invasive carp” in Asia?
“I had more hate mail than you could shake a stick at,” Hoffman said.
Now some other government agencies are taking the same step in the wake of anti-Asian hate crimes that surged during the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service quietly changed its designation to “invasive carp” in April.
“We wanted to move away from any terms that cast Asian culture and people in a negative light,” said Charlie Wooley, director of its Great Lakes regional office. …
“If you say it’s invasive, bad and needs to be eradicated, even though it’s because of miscommunication, that’s why there’s talk about cultural insensitivity,” Qian said.
It’s most accurate to refer to the fish species individually, he said, acknowledging a collective name is sometimes convenient. The challenge now is finding the right one.
The Evil Straight White Male Carp that Something Must Be Done About?
In general, the traditional ecological concept of an invasive population disrupting the indigenous American eco-system is obviously a hot potato in an era when environmentalism has been dumbed down to climate change and the supreme good is importing more people to vote Democratic.
iSteve commenter Norm der Ploom points out:
In Australia our main fish pest is the European Carp. What do you think the chances of renaming that are?
From Australia’s national science agency CSIRO:
European carp — an invasive species of Australian waterways
European carp (Cyprinus carpio) is a pest that adversely affects the health of our rivers and wetlands. It was first introduced to Australian waterways more than 100 years ago and has since established in every state except the Northern Territory.
Able to tolerate a wide range of conditions and habitats, including low-oxygen and brackish water, it is considered one of the country’s major aquatic pests since it massively spread through the Murray-Darling Basin in the late 1980s. Previously held in check by the drought, recent years of flooding rains have brought our river systems back to life, and as a result the carp population has again expanded. This puts increasing pressure on our waterways and native wildlife.
A recently identified candidate biological control agent may one day keep carp numbers in check. Our scientists are currently investigating a highly specific viral disease called cyprinid herpesvirus-3, also known as koi herpesvirus (KHV), to help manage carp numbers in Australia. The virus first appeared in Israel in 1998, and spread rapidly throughout much of the world, although not to Australia or New Zealand. It causes high death rates in common carp and in the ornamental koi carp. No other species of fish, including goldfish, are known to be affected by the virus.
Australia will get around to coming up with a nonracist name for the invasive European Carp as soon as its first Aborigine ichthyologist emerges.
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