A guest blogger today

MIchael Spencer is a landscape architect in Florida  and several days ago we learned that selling goldfish and koi is illegal in Maine; that discussion led to several comments of which this is one.


I think I might come down on the other side on this discussion about legal goldfish- reluctantly- and here is why: yesterday I saw an escaped Iguana crossing the road. He was a beautiful creature, sure, about 3' long, maybe 6" at the crest of his head. In some places around here they have reached 6' long and are eating turtles [traditional alligator food], ducks [same], and dogs and cats. Seriously. There is now a marine version living on the barrier islands that gets even larger and is breeding unchecked with no predators.

And everywhere I look, we are inundated by Australian pine, Brazilan pepper, and maleleuca [another Australian import from the 1900's designed to 'dry up the everglades'!]. These trees have a devastating effect on the local flora. And they are only the largest examples.

Our lakes are full of a fish called Tillapia, a fish served in restaurants, originally from South America, and now rapidly displacing bass [so you can see this really makes some people mad]. It is moved from lake to lake by birds, where eggs attach to legs.

It is true that Florida's benign environment attracts lots of immigrants. But it is also true that every clime in the US shares the same basic climate with areas of the earth that are many hundreds of times larger and that teem with plants and animals unique locally and a hazard when introduced.

In the ornamental plant world, great care is taken with propagation. In the case of desirable plants that cannot be made sterile, they are simply made unavailable by the commercial growers. We used to use a plant on the beach [Scaevola] that was beautiful and easy to propagate. But it shaded out the natural beach plants and then we suffered dune damage. Now, that plant is not available.

Can Koi survive in the wilds of Maine? Sure. They live outside in Japan, right? And in Maine? And even if a few die, many will survive. Goldfish, I dunno. We don't have any ordinances on these fishes here in Florida and I wonder why.

So the best thing for all of us- all of us who are nature lovers- is to behave responsibly. And realize that the water you toss out just might contain eggs.

–ms