Exotic animals deployed as Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta 'weed whackers'

[Brother Buzz]

Exotic animals deployed as Delta ‘weed whackers’

By Nestle J. Frobish
April 1, 2015

Coast guard crews keep close watch on the pod of hippos grazing in and around the weed-infested Stockton Deep Water Ship Channel. Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard

Visitors to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are doing double takes lately as they encounter some newly introduced “biological controls” to keep a fast-spreading waterweed from damaging boat propellers and choking off waterways.

Working with state water officials, UC Davis scientists last month released a herd or “bloat” of hippopotamuses from Botswana to chow down on vast mats of water hyacinth that also threaten to clog the intake to the California Aqueduct near Stockton.

Elsewhere in the Delta, the researchers also planted hyacinth-loving manatees imported from Florida and giant guinea pig-like rodents from Brazil called capybaras.

The menagerie of radio-tagged herbivores is part of a yearlong experiment in more natural and, some say, more effective, controls for curbing the menacing growth of non-native aquatic weeds in the Delta.

-more-
https://californiawaterblog.com/2015/04/01/exotic-herbivores-deployed-to-mow-down-waterweeds-clogging-delta/#:~:text=Working%20with%20state%20water%20officials,Water%20hyacinth%20in%20Delta.

[Blues Heron]

1. i fell for it!

good one!

[pecosbob]

2. I think this was posted last April 1st.

[Brother Buzz]

3. Yes, guilty, but any day is a good day to to promote Nestle J. Frobish

Nestle J. Frobish, head of the Worldwide Fair Play for Frogs Committee



Fair play for frogs: The Waldie-Frobish papers – January 1, 1977

If intelligent people cannot find humor appropriate to their IQs today, then they haven't read this book. The brilliance of the protagonist--one Nestle J. Frobish, head of the Worldwide Fair Play for Frogs Committee--and the defiance of his opponent, the late California politician, Jerome R. Waldie, who earned the ire of Frobish by proposing a bill in the state legislature allowing "frogs to be taken by slingshot"--combine to make this tale of correspondence between the two read like a spellbinding mystery novel. Yet, the story is (largely) true, and it exudes humor with every turn of the page. It also provides insight into how things (don't) get done in Washington, and it was written decades before the current crop of capital office-holders came to power. It's an enjoyable read every step of the way; my only complaint is that it wasn't longer.

[AllaN01Bear]

4. tee hee. tag , youre it.

[LeftInTX]

5. I fell for it. It made think of Pablo Escobar and I'm like, "What are they thinking???"