While the government spent the weekend dropping big-money announcements ahead of the budget, one of the best announcements from the government hasn’t quite caught on — yet. Science Minister Christopher Pyne is promising a “carp-ageddon” with the federal government announcing that a strain of herpes would be released into the Murray-Darling river system to eradicate the European carp — an introduced species that Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce calls the “rabbits of our waterways”. Senator Anne Ruston borrowed a line from the Prime Minister, saying “there has never been a less exciting time to be a European carp”. Pyne couldn’t answer when asked how the carp would catch the virus, but scientists told the ABC “random carp-to-carp encounters” would spread the virus.
Er…what happens to the dead carp? And if it’s an offense to return dead carp to the waterway, what’s the legality of killing them in-situ and leaving them there?
This could be fun.
A herpes virus introduced to kill carp? What could go wrong…….. 😉