Vermont Is For Pacus

Employees of a Vermont power company pulled a 2.5lb pacu fish out of Otter Creek earlier this month. What was the large, South American cousin of the piranha doing in New England? Perhaps searching for a good microbrew? ;-)

P.S. - be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the NAS Alert page to see the pacu pics!

New And Notable

Recent arrivals in the US and beyond:

• Large schools of black mollies (Poecilia latipinna x velifera) have been spotted in Indiana. A new record for that state and by far the most northern record of this common aquarium fish in the US...uh, outside of an aquarium, that is :-).
• There has been an unconfirmed identification of a brackish water snail as Assiminea sp., in Coos Bay in Oregon. Here's hoping it just turns out to be a little known native species, because they found thousands of them.
• The Asian tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) was discovered last month in Louisiana. An aquaculture escape - last year a record of the same species found in Alabama was attributed to floods caused by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
• The Sirex woodwasp (Sirex noctilio) has been found in Vermont, its first ever appearance in New England.
• A new species of fruit fly (Bactrocera invadens), reported to be in India in the last New and Notable, has now spread to Bhutan. It's spreading so fast, its scientific name is "invadens"!

Didymo Doom

The Burlington Free Press is reporting that the algae Didymosphenia geminata, commonly known as Didymo or "rock snot," has been discovered in the Connecticut River in Vermont. A fishing guide apparently spotted the stuff growing on rocks and reported it to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.

This is the first known record of Didymo in the Northeastern USA, though the algae has been sighted repeatedly over the past few years in the Southeastern USA (Tennessee, for example). As folks in New Zealand will tell you, this is bad news for the Connecticut River! There is no known way of getting rid of Didymo, so Vermont is instead focusing on controlling its spread. Fisherman and anyone else using the Connecticut River is being asked to follow New Zealand's protocol for decontaminating gear and clothing, especially if they are near infested sites (for now, just Bloomfield, Vermont). Unfortunately, even the tiniest little piece of Didymo clinging to a pair of waders can go on to form large mats when introduced to a new location.

Thanks to Lynn M. for sending in a link to the story, and bonus points to the Burlington Free Press for using Didymo's scientific name!

Native or Not: You Make the Call

Close on the heels of the eagle owl's return to England, the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) has been officially named a Vermont Native. As reported by the Burlington Free Press, researchers have used molecular tools to conclude that the fish have called Lake Champlain home for at least 11,000 years, after migrating up the St. Lawrence River from the Atlantic Ocean. I wonder what the New York side of the lake thinks about this :-).