Exercises

Something fishy

Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post

Sriprai Prueprang, a 28-year-old office worker, is one of many home aquarium owners who have benefited from a recent Fisheries Department exchange programme. Read this story from the Bangkok Post to find out more.

Sriprai Prueprang�s sucker fish attacked and killed six of her eight goldfish. Sriprai is one of the many people who put sucker fish into their tanks. The fish feed on waste and algae and serve as good tank cleaners.

The black sucker catfish, however, is not very friendly to goldfish.

�When I heard about the fish-exchange campaign, I knew that this was the way to save my two remaining goldfish from the aggressive sucker catfish,� Sriprai said.

Sriprai took her sucker catfish to the Fisheries Department and exchanged it for two Luk Phueng, a Thai fish species that also eats waste and algae.

FISH ATTACK

The Fisheries Department started the fish-exchange programme after reports that sucker catfish were invading rivers and ponds across the country. Buri Ram, Chon Buri and Tak are among the hardest-hit provinces.

The department suspects that people who no longer wanted the fish released them into waterways and ponds as a way of making merit.

Without serious control of the sucker catfish population, some native species could face extinction.

�We hope that this initiative will make people aware that releasing sucker catfish into natural waterways creates serious ecological problems,� said Fisheries Department spokesperson Sujin Nukwan.

DON�T BE A SUCKER

The department has received about 300 sucker catfish so far. They are being kept at the agency�s fish pond so that biologists can study them and find ways to control their population.

The fish exchange programme is only a short-term solution to the problem, however.

The department has also come up with a long-term plan to tackle the sucker catfish invasion by strengthening control of fish imports and listing the fish as an alien species.

Under the fisheries law, people who release the fish into natural waterways can be given a 10,000 baht fine, a six-month jail term, or both.

Exercise

Read the story. Then, answer the following multiple-choice questions.

1. Why did Sriprai exchange her sucker catfish?

a. She was bored with it.
b. It killed her goldfish.
c. She had no more room in her fish tank.

2. Which of the following provinces was hard hit by the sucker catfish invasion?

a. Buri Ram.
b. Chon Buri.
c. Tak.
d. All of the above.

3. Where does the Fisheries Department keep the 300 sucker catfish?

a. In a fish pond.
b. At Ocean World.
c. In an aquarium.

	algae (n): very simple plants that grow in or near water suspect (v): to have an idea that something is probably true or likely to happen waterway (n): a river, canal, etc. along which boats can travel extinction (n): a situation in which a plant, an animal, a way of life etc. stops existing initiative (n): a new plan for dealing with a particular problem or for achieving a particular purpose ecological (adj): connected with the relation of plants and living creatures to each other and to their environment tackle (v): to make a determined effort to deal with a difficult problemor situation alien (adj): from another place or country and foreign to the new environment