Cobra Effect: Lionfish-style | Hacker News Reader

Cobra Effect: Lionfish-style

nytimes.com

15 pointskaptain8 comments

I don't like the editorial slant on the title kaptain. You're declaring it a bad idea when you likely don't have anywhere near the credentials to make such a call.

Either we continue to eat the same popular fish out of existance, or we can try and eat overpopulated predators like the Lionfish.

It makes sense to try an idea before we condemn it.

Credentials don't matter. The idea--or, at least, a very similar one in terms of economic incentives--has been tried, and it resulted in the cobra effect. So it's not entirely out of place to condemn the idea.

There are risks to whetting America’s appetite. Marketing an invasive species could make it so popular that “individuals would raise or release the fish” where they did not already exist, Ms. Fellows said, potentially exacerbating the problem; tilapia were originally imported into Latin America for weed and bug control, but commercialization helped the species spread far more widely than intended.

Pattern recognition and reading of history don’t require a credential. What are the economic credentials of those who are promoting the idea?

I checked your HN karma after reading your comment. It's no surprise that you are a newbie. Ability to reason well is the only credential needed around here.

I'm not declaring it a bad idea. I'm pointing out how this idea is similar to a previously posted concept that other HN'rs thought was interesting. I saw the parallels so I thought maybe HN'rs might think this was interesting too. But with regard to your comment, I don't think it makes sense to try every idea before we condemn it.

Ideas like this always reminds me of the old lady who swallowed a fly, which is such a powerful metaphor for almost any time we try to control invasive species.

Creating a demand for a product is a powerful force, but it sure is hard to control once it has been established.

P.S. Here's the link to the cobra effect article from yesterday: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Cobra_effect

I think this idea could be applied to lots of species. Maybe they put a regulation on farming, free reign on fishing. In Florida there is a big problem with pythons in the Everglades that came from people's homes where they were pets.

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