pest

Introduction

What should be done to mitigate the deleterious effect of the brown bullhead catfish in the Bay of Plenty? For Cade’s and Hunter’s inquiry we picked the Brown Bullhead catfish, in this inquiry we are going to talk about, what is a catfish, what is the government doing, what are the catfish’s predators in NZ, reflection, various solutions,what the government needs to do, how the community can help then our conclusion. We chose catfish because it is not talked about as a pest, and we want to spread awareness and provide information about this interesting animal. This animal is part of the Ictaluridae family, which is the family for catfish. Finding catfish in New Zealand is a bit of a rarity as they only live in rivers and lakes. And we hope to get rid of it, to make our lakes cleaner.

What is a Catfish

A catfish is a fairly large creature that eats our native sea plant and animals. Catfish are very different if you compare them to other fish, they don’t chew their food, they swallow them whole, weirdly they have thousands of teeth the size of sand grains that they use to grip the animal their prey. An aspect to the Catfish is that they don’t have any scales instead having thick and rubbery skin. Catfish have spines sticking out around their mouth, these spines are poisonous and are dangerous to humans. I think from what I have observed that the catfish will do anything to survive even carrying out Cannibalism. Catfish live in small streams, rivers and lakes, they like the shallow water. Not going too far from shore, because they live close to shore they feed at the bottom of their river. Catfish in NZ eat a lot such as freshwater Crayfish, freshwater Mussels, Snails, insects, other fish ( such as other Catfish ), and Fish eggs.

Expert advice

On Friday the 9th we went on a trip to ongaiti we talked to an expert on our pest sadly they did not know anything about the brown bullhead catfish. We then went on and asked a marine biologist about what he thought we should do and he said he thinks we should use boats and go along with nets and catch them, he thinks this because all the other options would be very expensive and involve a lot of time and efffort, but if we use this method we could get keen fishing people to volunteer.

What the government is doing

Right now the government isn't doing much. Although the Rotorua Council is sending people into populated areas and is catching them in nets. We feel this isn’t enough. The reason they are not doing a lot is that it is too expensive to exterminate the catfish. We feel if they don't do something now it will only get worse and cost more. We also think this should be taken more seriously because it will get out of hand very quickly.

What are Catfish’s predators in NZ

It is hard to believe but when we researched this question we couldn’t find any predators in NZ.

Using knowable and using data from a very reliable source we found the only way they die without using the net, fishing for them, is by killing themselves (cannibalism) yes there are predators in other countries that we could bring over, but there's no guarantee that they'll eat the catfish and not eat all the other fish and create a bigger problem.

Reflection

So we know that the government won’t do anything else because it's too expensive,they’re not concentrating on pests right now, and they aren’t going to be concentrating on them anytime soon. We also know that we can’t do a lot without making things worse ( e.g. bringing over more pests ) and without spending millions of New Zealander’s money. It's taken a lot of thinking and debating ideas but have come up with a couple of solutions that could work

VARIOUS SOLUTIONS

What I and my partner think could be done is, hold a competition to see who can catch the most catfish, set up large nets and check them every day, we also think about putting a fast-spreading virus and what we intend on doing is when the catfish mate or interact with one another they spread this virus and kill the population. We could also send a team of scuba divers to slowly kill them but I think this would take a long time and be very ineffective. We could also use electrofishing to catch the catfish. Electrofishing is using a machine that pulse’s electricity into the water, the shock wave stuns the catfish causing it to sink to the bottom of the body of water for it to be picked up in a net.

What the government needs to do

I think that the government should fund more catfish removal plans set up by the council, they should also look into what needs to be done to help the extermination of catfish in NZ, they could also put research into how the catfish got to NZ, maybe that could help with stopping them. I think the government should try and get the different regions to go into their backyard to save their waterways.

How the community can help

The community can do a lot of things to help stop the spread of catfish, you can go down to your local stream or river to check to see if there is any sign of catfish, if there are then please notify the council. You can also go to populated areas and fish for them. A net is the most effective way to catch them by hand right now until we come up with a better solution. If you have an idea that can help the fight against catfish, you should present this idea to the council.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we think that multiple things could be done, But we have to do them right. We need to take our time, and not do anything foolish that could destroy our lakes and rivers. The catfish is a nasty animal that could end up killing our waterways. Mr Clarke, a substitute teacher, used to be a marine expert, said that a good way to hunt the catfish was to hold competitions on who could catch the most catfish as we add this idea to our solutions. We think this idea could work but would take a while as catfish aren’t easy to catch. But this is the only solution that could be possible right now, maybe we can make those other ideas more realistic in the future. That's the end, for now, hope this has been a good use of your time and have a nice day.

Bibliography

https://www.https://cdn.boprc.govt.nz/media/373647/pa23-catfish-web.pdfgameandfishmag.com

Written, september 28, 2010

Published by outdoor sportsmen 2021

https://cdn.boprc.govt.nz/media/373647/pa23-catfish-web.pdf

Written by Bay of Plenty Regional Council

Published by- unknown

https://www.nrc.govt.nz/environment/weed-and-pest-control/pest-control-hub/?pwsystem=true&pwid=99

Written by Northland regional Council

https://www.catfishsutton.com/do-catfish-have-teeth/#:~:text=Yes%20catfish%20do%20have%20teeth,use%20to%20grip%20their%20prey

Written, April 2, 2021

Published by 2021 Catfish Sutton