Giant Goldfish in Toronto

[Catherine]

It sounds like a bad science fiction movie where giant fish take over the city.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/06/...aters.html

Goldfish are tough little creatures who have strong survival skills and high reproductive rates. This problem could get much worse.
I think no one is sure how to deal with the problem. The fish are there and they are growing very fast. At very least, people need to stop dumping there fish.

Maybe we can add the captured fish to some of the artificial ponds and lakes. I don't want them to try and kill them like they did in Colorado.

[Tobi]

Ooops...when I was a student I shared a house with a number of other students in North London, and when we had to move out and had uncertain futures....two of us went up to a large pond just outside Hampstead Heath and let our two goldfish 'go free and be happy'....
Before doing that we asked locals if there were any large fish in there that might eat them. When we found out there weren't, we thought the two goldfish were good to go.
We had no idea about environmental issues, OR how big they could grow! We had no idea what impact this could have on nature.
So I do kind of know a little about this 'from the bad side'....

Flushing fish down the toilet...that is so horrible. I don't know how anyone could do that.

I hope they can humanely catch some of these fish and find another venue for them?

[Catherine]

It isn't just Toronto and Ontario having trouble. Alberta is having goldfish problems.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/gi...-1.3125163

I don't know how they will sort this out. We have so many invasive species. Some are very destructive of the local environment.

You wouldn't have even thought about the consequences when you turned your goldfish loose. You just wanted them to have a good life.
You aren't the first to do something like that. Someone let rabbits get loose in Australia. I hope goldfish are not as destructive as rabbits. The trouble is, many people are turning the fish loose and they are still doing it.

I am sure you were not the only ones to put goldfish in that particular pond. Is England having a goldfish problem as well?