To hook diners, an invasive species of carp gets a new name

Given that hippos are notorious people killers I am glad this never happened.

> Probably a good thing that there is not a population of thousands of feral hippopotamus going around.

You've heard of the "Cocaine Hippos", right?

https://youtu.be/mz8J6lJkbFA

Pablo Escobar's hippos are (were?) a pest in Colombia.

Here's a fun, short alt-history novel set in a world where that plan was actually implemented:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31445891-river-of-teeth

I like the idea. Worst case they are more harm than help to the environment and wind up catching hot lead because of it. Large herbivores don't have the same potential to accidentally spread unnoticed or evade apex predators (us) like carp do. It wouldn't be the first time we've eradicated a large herbivore from the continent and it probably won't be the last.

Names like "Kentucky Tuna" are dangerous for public health safety reasons.

If you want to re-brand a freshwater fish, please use other freshwater fish names, don't let people to assume it's a saltwater fish which can be eaten raw or slightly cured.

Interesting, never heard of these but they look like beavers or otters. Pure speculation but they look like their meat would be game central.

They also offer a bounty on nutria tails. $6 a tail.[0] For those thinking it, they do have registration and other ways to eliminate the cobra effect.

[0] https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/news/ldwf-announces-increase-i...

That's pretty much a The Economist trademark. They really go for cleverness in heds and ledes.

Here is how you cook them.

You take a cedar plank and lay the carp on it. Cover it with tomato paste, cilantro, brown sugar and lemon juice. Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, or smoke until it is flaky. Remove the carp off the board and throw it away, then eat the board.

Copi. Seethe. As the kids say, I guess.

Chilean sea bass vs Patagonian toothfish all over again. Personally the second name sounds much more metal.

thank you

It works fine in Firefox reader mode.

Why am i being downvoted though? I literally just posted a link to a non-paywalled site. No opinion added. And I get downvoted for that? Wow!

Lol. We are good at it. Pretty sure if a species of dinosaurs made it until now on an island, we would have wiped it off.

Now they need to make it easy to fish for.

In IL to do it legally, you pretty much need a boat. There is only a few places you can do it without one. It is also only certain times of year.

You could, but probably a bad plan. We don't eat freshwater fish raw due to worse characteristics in terms of bacteria/parasites. (Though I can't really say how this plays out in terms of the whole deep freezing to kill parasites situation – not an expert, just my understanding)

The first time I had it was after going into a high end fish market (quite far from my house) to get some good tuna. Saw it and it was cheap enough to take a flyer on. Was great.

Went back the next weekend for it specifically.

Grew up dodging scores of it as they flew over our bass boat flying down the backwaters of the Mississippi. Twenty years ago I wouldn’t be able to find a single person who had ever eaten it and I’m not sure that’s any different today, which is a tragedy since it apparently tastes pretty nice.

It does? It's stated clearly in the third paragraph.

Copi, short for copious