Questions:
1.What other possible effects could killing the trout have on the ecosystem? Could it actually end up doing more harm than good?2. Are there other ways to save the cutthroats rather than killing the lake trout? Are there other ways to handle the trout?
3. Is human intervention in this situation sincerely to preserve the ecosystem for nature and the good of the planet, or is it actually just another way for humans to establish control in this region and fix the ecosystem for their own gain?
I don't think that annihilating the trouts can be a good idea but I do think that we can kill some of them off to keep the survival of the cutthroats. We can kill like half of them and let the cutthroats increase their population. By sustaining the population of the lake trouts we won't damage the ecosystem by that much. We don't want to kill them all off at once because we do not know the consequences and impact that will affect the entire ecosystem. By proceeding carefully, we can see what the death of the trouts will do the ecosystem and react to that.
ReplyDeleteKilling all of the trout in the ecosystem cannot be a viable solution until we know all of the effects of the trout on the ecosystem. Although they are killing cutthroats, they might also be doing something positive in that ecosystem, like killing off a harmful species or eating excess vegetation. Until we are sure that the benefits (saving the cutthroats) outweigh the costs (killing an entire species of fish and undermining the positive effects of the lake trout on the ecosystem), we should not allow the effort to kill all of the lake trout continue. I am not sure if this is a viable solution, but it might be worth it to try to see if one of the species can be relocated. If many of these lake trout that are supposed to be killed are instead caught and relocated, it may be possible to keep the species alive while protecting the cutthroats from their presence. I believe that in this situation, human intervention is only out of concern for the entire ecosystem and the species that would benefit from the preservation of the cutthroats (the cutthroats themselves and all of the animals that use them as food). I think that killing all of the lake trout has no personal benefit to the people. They are spending a lot of money and not gaining food or resources from it, so I believe that the intent is purely to benefit the ecosystem.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Isaac in that our initial trial shouldn't be to immediatly eliminate all Lake trout at once. Rather we should take a slower route and kill a few (relative to the population) at a time to try to see if we can learn what negative and positive effects the absense of the Lake trout would have on the ecosystem. Since the lake trout have been in the lake for over a few decades it is a more than likely chance they have developed a role in the ecosystem and the sudden removal of the species may set off some sort of chain reaction.
ReplyDeleteIf one thing can be learned from this and other situations like it, its that humans should not try to add to or change an ecosystem without sufficient research and understanding of what that action may bring about in the ecosystem. We really don't know yet what the removal of the Lake trout ehat truly do to the rest of the ecosytem. The knee-jerk reaction of disposing of all of them at once could be potentially just as bad for thye ecosystem as it was rto add them in the first place.
I agree with Jenna above. Killing the entire population of a species cannot be good for the ecosystem that has now adapted to accept the invasive species to some degree or another. Of course, there are plenty of native species that need to be protected, but we have to take much caution before eradicating any species from an ecosystem because they are all interlaced.
ReplyDeletePerhaps commercial fishing of the invasive trout could cut back on it's population. Once researches know where the eggs are laid, they can then control the trout's territory by intense fishing in their hatchery. This way, the invasive species is contained and provides a balance to the ecosystem.
I believe that killing the trout is not the best solution to save the cutthroats. While I agree that something needs to be done to control the population, I feel that too much direct human intervention can have very harmful repercussions. Another species may have adapted to become dependent on the trout, or the trout may be responsible for controlling some other element of the ecosystem. Because there may be some role the trout plays in the ecosytem that we do not know about, we will never know what harmful effects the killing of the trout may cause.
ReplyDelete