I had stopped on a footbridge in a nearby nature park this past weekend...after an afternoon shower, a lot of people had left, but with my raincoat handy I just waited it out. One minor problem was I usually put my wallet in my left chest pocket...only I forgot to zip it up. Okay, it was quickly a major problem...
Had I not leaned over to look at a shadowy area below, it might never have happened...but in that mental slow-motion split second that played for an eternity, I watched my wallet cartwheel to the watery world below.
As it got within inches of the surface, a rather large grass carp jumped up to grab it...but to my surprise, instead of holding on to it and taking it below, it was like he batted it to the left, where the water's surface soon roiled with other grass carp that seemed to be playing some sort of Osteichthyian foosball game with it, using their heads to bat my poor wallet around...
What, you haven't heard of carp to carp walleting before?
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All creatures great and small have their niche in the natural world...but sometimes things go terribly wrong, and often man has his finger in the pot. Kudzu was at first a nice ornamental plant brought over from Japan in 1876 for the big Centennial Expo in Philadelphia...it took 'root' and by The Great Depression it was urged to be used as an erosion control plant. Of course, Southerners are keenly aware how kudzu has now consumed untold millions of acres 'swallowing' everything in its path...
And so the Asian Carp was brought in to some Mississippi and Arkansas ponds to help with filtration needs, at which that species excels...it also excels at breeding rapidly and is aggressive in its eating habits. When the Mississippi River flooded in 1993, many of these filtration ponds were breached, the Asian Carp got in the river, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I had accidentally happened upon these video links and had heretofore been unaware of the unusual water hazards these often airborne fish produce...thought you'd like to see something odd, if not new to you...
DesMoines Register video...
Brazil? Last part is WILD...
As the old joke goes, "What's the best way to catch a fish?" Have somebody throw it to you. Or drive your boat through a school of Asian Carp. Or do what these people do in the following hillarious ads...
Commercial #1
Commercial #2
glub, glub, glub, y'all!
Had I not leaned over to look at a shadowy area below, it might never have happened...but in that mental slow-motion split second that played for an eternity, I watched my wallet cartwheel to the watery world below.
As it got within inches of the surface, a rather large grass carp jumped up to grab it...but to my surprise, instead of holding on to it and taking it below, it was like he batted it to the left, where the water's surface soon roiled with other grass carp that seemed to be playing some sort of Osteichthyian foosball game with it, using their heads to bat my poor wallet around...
What, you haven't heard of carp to carp walleting before?
------------------------------------
All creatures great and small have their niche in the natural world...but sometimes things go terribly wrong, and often man has his finger in the pot. Kudzu was at first a nice ornamental plant brought over from Japan in 1876 for the big Centennial Expo in Philadelphia...it took 'root' and by The Great Depression it was urged to be used as an erosion control plant. Of course, Southerners are keenly aware how kudzu has now consumed untold millions of acres 'swallowing' everything in its path... And so the Asian Carp was brought in to some Mississippi and Arkansas ponds to help with filtration needs, at which that species excels...it also excels at breeding rapidly and is aggressive in its eating habits. When the Mississippi River flooded in 1993, many of these filtration ponds were breached, the Asian Carp got in the river, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I had accidentally happened upon these video links and had heretofore been unaware of the unusual water hazards these often airborne fish produce...thought you'd like to see something odd, if not new to you...
DesMoines Register video...
Brazil? Last part is WILD...
As the old joke goes, "What's the best way to catch a fish?" Have somebody throw it to you. Or drive your boat through a school of Asian Carp. Or do what these people do in the following hillarious ads...
Commercial #1
Commercial #2
glub, glub, glub, y'all!
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