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The Invasion of the Huge Goldfish (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

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  Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Marina Sante and I'm Roger Basseck. Spotlight Advanced
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  uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand
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  no matter where in the world they live. A woman sits in a boat
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  floating on a small lake. She is fishing. She holds her fishing pole
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  loosely, as if not expecting a bite. Suddenly there is a pole on
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  her line. She jumps up and seizes the instruments in her hand. A
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  fish is on her line. Excited, the woman pulls the fish closer and
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  closer to the boat. But when she lifts the fish out of the water,
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  it is different than she expected. She was hoping to catch a lake
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  trout, a large fish found in this lake. The fish she caught is
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  just as large, but it is a shiny orange color. It is a
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  goldfish. Below her in the water, there are thousands more just like it.
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  Goldfish are a kind of fish that are native to East Asia. People
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  all over the world keep them as pets. Most people know them as small
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  creatures swimming in glass tanks, but they grow much larger in the wild.
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  They can destroy native fish populations. How did things get this way. Today's
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  spots sight is on the invasion of the huge goldfish. Goldfish have a long
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  history as a decorative animal, prized for their bright color. In China,
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  it was once illegal for anyone to own a goldfish except the ruler. In
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  China, these fish symbolized good luck and wealth. Even after these laws went
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  away, goldfish remained a symbol of social standing. People first brought goldfish to
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  Europe in the sixteen hundreds. There, wealthy people put goldfish into private lakes.
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  These fish made their lakes seem exotic. People could not find orange colored
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  fish in the wild there they had to purchase them, so keeping goldfish was
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  a way to show off social standing and wealth. People brought goldfish to North
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  America and Australia soon afterwards. We do not know the exact year, but
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  records suggest that people brought them to the United States before the eighteen hundreds.
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  These fish came to Australia soon after. Here they noted a special social status
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  as in Europe, but soon the goldfish it had become the most common pets
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  all over the world. In eighteen seventy four, the United States government received
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  a shipment of goldfish from Japan. The United States Bureau of Fisheries began to
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  raise the fish, and in the eighteen eighties they started giving goldfish away to
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  people living in Washington, d c. And Baltimore. They designed these giveaways
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  as a publicity stunt. It was an event designed to direct notice to their
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  work with fisheries. But the giveaways changed the way people thought about goldfish too.
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  These exotic fish were no longer something special. This feeling grew even after
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  the Bureau of Fisheries stopped giving goldfish away. Other private fisheries continued to grow
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  goldfish. The animals were easy to take care of, so people kept buying
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  them as pets. In some places, people even gave them away as prizes.
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  This led to the idea that people could throw these animals away in time.
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  This throwaway idea spread to other English speaking countries like the United Kingdom and
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  Australia. Regrettably, what makes goldfish a good pet makes them a problem in
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  the wild. Goldfish can survive in many different situations. They can eat almost
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  anything, They live in colder water easily. They can even live in areas
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  with little oxygen. This means that they can survive for a long time in
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  a fish tank without care. It also means they can live successfully in almost
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  any fresh water in the wild. The goldfish's ability to survive has made it
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  a problem in countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia. In
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  these nations, people who do not want their goldfish will release them into the
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  wild. For them, it is an act of mercy not to kill the
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  fish. But goldfish can be very bad for the environment, and in the
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  wrong conditions, a group of goldfish can kill off whole populations of other animals.
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  One of the biggest problems with goldfish is their size. Inside a tank
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  of water, goldfish do not grow very large, but in the wild,
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  goldfish easily grow thirty six centimeters long. This makes them too big for many
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  predators to eat. Goldfish also reproduce very quickly. One female goldfish can produce
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  up to forty thousand eggs a year. With nothing to keep their numbers down,
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  a few goldfish can take over. They will eat all of the food
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  in the water. This leaves nothing for native animals. Goldfish also destroy native
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  plant life. They change the environment around them to make it more difficult for
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  other fish to live. For some animals, goldfish make life more difficult,
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  but for others, the situation is deadly. Kevin Nectar is an invasive animals
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  expert at the Nevada Department of Wildlife. He spoke to the website wideopenspaces dot
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  com about the problems with goldfish in his area. One of the biggest problems
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  we have with them in Nevada is that we have many endemic species. These
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  are animals that are only found in one place. When people bring goldfish to
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  those places, it can sometimes cause these species to die out. Sadly,
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  wild goldfish populations are now very widespread. Every state in the United States has
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  wild goldfish in their waters. They are a problem in South Africa, Turkey,
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  and Australia. One river in Western Australia, the Vasse River, has
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  the fastest reproducing population of goldfish in the world. Organizations in these countries may
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  never completely remove goldfish, but there are many things you can do to prevent
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  incidents like the Great Goldfish Invasion. First, do not release your pets into
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  the wild. Many common pets are not native. Give them to a new
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  home if you are tired of them, or donate them to a pet adoption
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  agency. Second, clean off your things if you're traveling. Small invasive species
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  catch on clothing, shoes, and even the bottoms of boats. A swift
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  clean can stop them from getting to places that they do not belong. Finally,
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  support your local environmental groups. These groups will manage invasive animals like goldfish.
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  They will also inform you with threats to your local wildlife life. Have
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  you ever had a goldfish as a pet? Have you seen one in the
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  wild. You can leave a comment on our website or email us at Radio
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  at Radio English dot net. You can also comment on Facebook at Facebook dot
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  com slash Spotlight Radio. The writer and producer of this program was Dan Christman.
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  The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States.
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  All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotslight. You can listen
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  to this program again and read it on the internet at www dot Radio English
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  dot net. This program is called The Invasion of the Huge Goldfish. You
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  can also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our
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  free official Spotlight English app. We hope you can join us again for the
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  next Spotlight Advanced program. Good Bye,