Eating Invasive Species From fish to weeds, ideas to combat
alien species We read with great interest a report in The New
York Times this weekend about a new way to fight invasive
species: by eating them. Fish and plants that have been
introduced to non-native regions can disrupt the food chain and
even cause environmental damage. The lionfish, as the Times
story points out, not only looks intimidating with its venomous
spikes and dark stripes, but it's gobbling up reef fish from
Florida to the Caribbean. The lionfish joins the Asian Carp,
which was erroneously said to be able to walk across land and
literally invade American lakes (in truth, it can only hop a few
feet), in setting off environmental alarms. It may not be the
ideal solution, but chefs and organizations like Seafood Watch
and the James Beard Foundation are suggesting that one way to
combat these invaders' growth is to convince people to eat them.
According to the Times, tilapia's rise in popularity had a
similar trajectory. One of the first che