Recently, the Danish Embassy in China issued a "Weibo for help" saying that Pacific oysters have invaded the Danish coast. Since they have no natural enemies, they reproduce so quickly that they pose a serious threat to the local ecology. Even the Danish Nature Conservation Agency has They can't help it.
As soon as Weibo was posted, the Chinese foodies were probably the ones who couldn’t calm down the most.
Chinese foodies collectively became excited and expressed their strong desire to join China’s “Oyster Eating Team”. They said, “I’ve come across the ocean to eat you”, “What a big deal, I, the people of heaven, will pass by in seconds.” Destroyed in seconds."
However, the Danish oysters have not been solved yet, and there is another "good news";
Recently, an army of crabs in the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, crossed the road collectively and flocked to the seaside to lay eggs. Millions of crabs crisscrossed the road, completely covering it, and passers-by said they had no place to stand. The point is, local residents dare not eat it.
After hearing the news, Chinese netizens who had already started a fire with a pot called "double happiness" and asked, "Should we go to Denmark to eat oysters or Cuba to eat crabs?" They also asked for Cuban crabs. Slogan: If you have the guts, come to China! Or hurry up and export Chinese foodies.
In fact, there have been many similar cases of biological invasion in recent years, including carp and bullfrog in the United States, hairy crabs in the Rhine River, red crabs in Australia, and now oysters from Denmark and crabs from Cuba.
In the 1970s, in order to clean water bodies, the U.S. government imported eight species of Asian fish, including black carp and carp, from Southeast Asia and put them into some breeding lakes in the south.
Ten years later, when the lake area encountered flooding, these Asian carp took advantage of the chaos and escaped into the wild and began to reproduce in large numbers.
These invasive "Asian carp" compete with native fish for food and space, posing a threat to the ecosystem in the United States. The United States spent nearly 20 billion U.S. dollars on the treatment, and even sent experts to visit China to inspect the Chinese carp sales market and consider exporting the affected carp to China.
In biology, biological invasion refers to the invasion of organisms from their original habitat into another new environment through natural or artificial means, which affects the biodiversity, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery production of the invaded area, as well as The process by which human health causes economic losses or ecological disasters.
Since this species does not exist in the invaded area and has no natural enemies, it will multiply indefinitely and cause disasters. The arrival of these "uninvited guests" disrupts the local ecological balance and poses a threat to the "indigenous organisms" in the inherent biological chain.
Invasive species need to have the ability to establish and spread populations, and have both reproductive capabilities and adaptability to new environments.
Biological invasion is one of the most serious environmental problems in the world, and China is also one of the countries most severely affected by alien biological invasion. China Fisheries Channel reported that according to the latest statistical results, there are currently more than 500 species of alien organisms invading China.
As far as exotic aquatic animals are concerned, many were first introduced into my country as cultured species. Later, due to reasons such as escape from culture or artificial release, they arrived in open waters and reproduced rapidly, so that in southern my country Widely distributed, affecting the structure and function of native ecosystems, some of them have become dominant species.
Later, many invasive aquatic animals were put on the Chinese dining table, including common crayfish, tilapia, leatherhead catfish, apple snails, bullfrogs, largemouth bass, etc.
The popular crayfish in our country is an invasive alien species from South America. It once spread all over the ditches in a short period of time, posing a threat to the freshwater fish and shrimp resources in the inland rivers.
However, just a few years after Chinese foodies added it to the diet, wild crayfish are almost no longer seen, and most of the crayfish eaten now are artificially cultured.
As an invasive species, crayfish not only have super reproductive capabilities, but can also survive in domestic sewage and lightly polluted industrial wastewater.
Some types of organisms can only live in clean water bodies, and these organisms are called sensitive species. Some types of organisms are highly resistant to pollution and can reproduce in large numbers in severely polluted water bodies, and these organisms are called resistant species. Type of pollution. Obviously, crayfish falls into the latter category.
According to statistics from the magazine "China Fisheries", in addition to the aforementioned several species that have been put on the dining table, the common exotic aquatic species in my country also include:
Red-eared turtles (Brazilian turtles) ), short-capped giant carp (freshwater pomfret), red-bellied catfish (piranan pomfret), catfish (scavenger), gar, mosquitofish, Lusta dace (Thai dace), mirror Common carp, snapping turtle, water hyacinth (water hyacinth), sorrel fish (freshwater white shark), rainbow trout, largemouth bass (California bass), kingfish (American redfish), channel catfish (channel catfish) Catfish), paddlefish (duckbill fish), hybrid sturgeon, sunfish, etc.
In fact, most of these exotic aquatic animals that have successfully taken root in China are pollution-resistant organisms. In water bodies with severe or moderate eutrophication, these pollution-tolerant species are more likely to form dominant populations.
But it is worth noting that these organisms do not grow better when the water is dirtier. As the pollution of our country's fresh water bodies continues to increase, the number of many native organisms has been greatly reduced, giving these outsiders more space to live and reproduce rapidly. Pollution will also cause harm to them, but it is easier to "carry" it.
Moreover, they develop quickly, have a short life cycle, and accumulate heavy metals in the body. They are likely to cause varying degrees of damage to human health after consumption.
Tilapia living in some seriously polluted rivers and lakes have very high levels of mercury in their bodies.
Among the aquatic organisms that have invaded foreign countries and flooded the country before, there are many organisms that have high requirements on the living environment - carps, crabs, etc.
Carp is an organism that is very sensitive to changes in water quality. Once harmful pollutants appear in the water, its mortality rate is very high.
The Asian carp that breeds like crazy in the United States have a hard time in the wild in their hometown in China. According to surveys in recent years, due to the deterioration of the ecological environment caused by pollution and over-exploitation, the wild fry of the "four major fish" have become extinct in the Zhuzhou section of the Xiangjiang River.
According to monitoring by the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the number of fry of the "four major fish" in the Yangtze River has dropped from more than 30 billion 60 years ago to less than 100 million, and may also be in danger of extinction. .
Hairy crabs originating in China have long been prevalent in Germany and the United Kingdom. In contrast, in China, pure original hairy crabs are almost extinct in China's water systems.
When aquatic animals native to China are overflowing in Europe and the United States but are endangered in China, and we are joking about forming teams abroad for "disaster relief", we should be even more vigilant.
When we take pride in our ability to "eat invasive species until they become endangered", we should understand that most of what we eat are pollution-resistant organisms, which are likely to harm our bodies.
The former State Environmental Protection Administration once released news: Among the seven major river basins in China, the serious problems faced are water pollution and water resource shortages. Organic pollution is widespread in major rivers and eutrophication is serious in major lakes.
The order of pollution levels of the seven major water systems in descending order is: Liaohe River, Haihe River, Huaihe River, Yellow River, Songhua River, Pearl River and Yangtze River. Among them, more than 70% of the river sections in the Liaohe River, Huaihe River, Yellow River, Haihe River and other river basins are polluted.
Affected by the deterioration of the ecological environment, the populations of some precious species are declining and even on the verge of extinction.
On the other hand, the harm of water pollution to people is gradually revealed. One statistics shows that more than 1,700 water pollution accidents occur in China every year.
Scientific research has found that cancer is caused by the long-term accumulation of harmful substances in body fluids inside and outside human cells, causing damage to cell tissues and causing acute deterioration. The spread of cancer cells is also carried out through cellular body fluids, and other diseases, inflammation, etc. are also caused by harmful substances in intracellular water.
Due to the lack of authoritative data, the number of "cancer villages" circulating on the Internet is not uniform, but most reports point to contaminated drinking water as the cause of the high incidence of cancer and other diseases.
Relative to surface water, groundwater is relatively clean, but water quality is also declining.
Just before, a graphic report titled "170,000 square meters of super industrial sewage seepage pit discovered in North China" attracted attention. The article stated that both Hebei and Tianjin have large-scale industrial sewage seepage pit pollution problems. . The vast expanse of black, red and yellow industrial wastewater has become a colored lake.
According to testing, the PH value of the sewage in the Jinghai seepage pit in Tianjin is 1-2. Experts say that a pH value of 1 means that the water quality has been severely acidified. Normal water quality should be weakly alkaline, with a pH value of around 7-8. Strong acid is particularly serious in eroding land. If it contaminates groundwater, it will have a serious impact on human health.
According to reports, in the past seven or eight years, villagers around the seepage pits have begun to find that more and more people in the village are suffering from various cancers. "70% of the deaths in the village in recent years were caused by cancer."
Water is the source of life, and destroying the aquatic ecology is destroying life.
The creatures living in China are on the verge of extinction, but they are living well abroad. The creatures that come to China are put on the table, but few people care about whether they pose a threat to human health. It is undeniable that our country’s eating culture is extensive and profound, but we cannot ignore more important topics just because we “like to eat”.
Compared with going abroad to rescue oysters and crabs, the top priority is to save ourselves, save polluted water sources, save endangered species, and save the lives of our compatriots.