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Michael Spooneybarger / Reuters
Nutria pile up along the shore on Aug. 31 after Hurricane Isaac went through Waveland, Miss.
If there's a silver lining for the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Isaac, it might just be this: the surge of water flushed out, and drowned, thousands of nutria — giant rodents originally from South America that are eating away at coastal marshlands, which act as barriers from storms.
Most of the dead nutria have washed up on beaches in Mississippi's Hancock and Harrison counties.
"Estimates are there will be over 20,000 carcasses," Robbie Wilbur, spokesman for the state's department of environmental quality, told NBC News.
In the short term, that many rotting carcasses is a health hazard.
"It's a terrible smell," David Garcia, mayor of Waveland in Hancock county, told WLOX-TV. "As this heat continues, they're just going to blow up and pop, making it even more of a health hazard."
Crews over the weekend started removing the nutria, aka swamp rats, though it's not an easy task.
"As they're picking them up, they're busting open," Hancock County Supervisor David Yarborough told the Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald.
A federal contractor with experience in hazardous waste has been brought in, but even a handful of its workers had quit Sunday morning, the Sun Herald reported.
"There's people who can't take the sight of something like this," Yarborough said. "That's the reason I wouldn't even attempt this with county people. You really should be certified and trained in hazardous waste."
County crews tried to deal with a similar situation after Hurricane Gustav in 2008 "and we had people getting sick; wound up buying everybody's clothes," he added.
Classified as rodents even though they are semi-aquatic, nutria were released in Louisiana and Mississippi back in the 1930s by fur trappers looking for new stock. Populations were kept in check as long as fur prices were good, but a collapse in the 1980s led to a collapse in trapping and a population now estimated at several million.
As a result, nutria are "one of the Gulf South’s most notorious invasive species, wreaking ecological havoc on native wetland vegetation and contributing to coastal erosion problems," Mississippi's Department of Environmental Quality said in its plan for dealing with invasives.
The erosion is done by nutria "digging into thin soils and eating roots of marsh vegetation," the department states. "As the vegetation dies, the fine-grained, denuded soils become more vulnerable to erosion, eventually forming expanding holes in the marsh called 'eat-outs'."
The species is also a speedy breeder: nutria reach sexual maturity at just four months old, and females are able to breed within 48 hours of giving birth to a litter.
Back along the beaches, the thousands of nutria carcasses are being taken to a nearby landfill, while those in areas away from the public will be left there.
"We're letting mother nature take care of those," Chad Lafontaine, with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, told the Sun Herald.
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"Nutria is a very lean, fibrous, protein-rich meat; in certain ways it is much better than beef, chicken and turkey for the human body. It is low in fat and cholesterol with the taste, texture, and appearance of rabbit or dark turkey meat" according to a study published in the Journal of Food Science. Just let Mayor Bloomberg know and as soon as the ban on 16oz sodas is complete, he can get the staff to write a new rule to have nutria replace all the other unhealthy meats currently being served and causing health problems in New Yorkers.
PETA is going to be PISSED! Piss on PETA.
Nutria Chili
Recipe by: Chef Enola Prudhomme
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 pounds nutria ground meat
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced green bell pepper
1 cup diced red bell pepper
1 cup tomato paste
4 cups beef stock (or water)
1 can red kidney beans (opt.)
In a heavy 5-quart pot on high heat, add oil and heat until very hot. Add nutria meat, and cook and stir 10 minutes. Add salt, red pepper, chili powder, onion and both bell peppers. Cook and stir 15 minutes. Add tomato paste and 4 cups stock. Cook 30 minutes; reduce heat to medium. Add red kidney beans; cook an additional 10 minutes. Serve hot!
These are the cutest, sweetest little creatures. How sad that precious, innocent, little creatures like this are hurt. The innocent and defenseless are always hurt the most. This world is really quite a place of horror. Random violence and evil prevail.
I wish somehow that these poor, sweet, cute, innocent little creatures could have been rescued and saved.
Yeah Joan, these cute sweet little creatures are Nutria and they'll rip you fat hand off with their big orange teeth. They swim like Beavers but are a real nuisance in the south. Get over it.
Heart Healthy 'Crock-Pot' Nutria
2 hind saddle portions of nutria meat
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 tomato, cut into big wedges
2 potatoes, sliced thin
2 carrots, sliced thin
8 Brussels sprouts
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup water
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup demi-glace (optional)
Layer onion, tomato, potatoes, carrots and Brussels sprouts in crockpot. Season nutria with salt, pepper and garlic, and place nutria over vegetables. Add wine and water, set crockpot on low and let cook until meat is tender (approximately 1-1/2 hours). Garnish with vegetables and demi-glace. Makes four servings.
Is that with or without maggots?
To: Gary and Marilee
Cruelty to animals is not funny. All life is precious and must be protected and regarded highly, even the smallest creature.
One cannot read the Bible without realizing that God, himself, created nature as an integral, very critical and important part of this earth.
Are you nuts ? These are from South America and are here without documentation so lets blast them....Oh, wait, thats what John McCain said in his speech at the Republican Convention.
Why doesn't the government put a bounty on these things, big snakes, wild pigs, Asian Carp and other invasive things that are ruining the environment ? bounty hunters and the unemployed would be happy to "collect" a few every day and turn them in to make a living..I realize congress would rather spend 50 million dollars to "study and research" the problem but lets put that money to work and get rid of them..
They have, do some research and you will learn the tails are worth $5 each. Over $2 million dollars where harvested just last year.
You can't fool me, those are not swamp rats, those are Democrats!
Look at those big teeth and long tails.
I'm sure they'll be voting in November.
Mmmm, swamp rats.
da da.. da da ..da da da da da
da da.. da da.. da da.....da
da da.. da da ..da da da da da
POP goes the swamp rat.
Dey'z ain't no ratz.... dey'z leftover Re-pub-La-kinz.
Tasty
I guess the chinese restaurants in the area , will have a new kind of mystery meat on the menu ..
Grind'em up cook'em up up and sell em for fertilizer! hell of an opportunity for someone!
Do a little research before you waste your time. Their tails are worth $5 each, uncooked!
I peed in a Nutria once.
When the headline read somethin' about dead "swamp rats", and right after the GOP convention in Tampa, I thought surely they were talkin' about Republicans. Close, but no banana hahahaha
No, no Chuck, you missed the boat. It's the Democrat National Convention they speak of.
I'm an unemployed white male, a USA citizen. Give me a space suit & a gas mask, I'll move those suckers to the trash. We don't need illegal immigrants to do hard work.
Thank you so much, shallow vapid people who desperately need to wear rat fur coats...
Giant rodents from South America lying dead and bloated on the beach. Too bad they all have four legs when so many two legged ones were spared.
There is a bounty on these critters! $5 a tail. All you need to do is collect the tails and turn them in to proper authorities. Hurry before the tails lose their hair and Mother Nature takes them back.
When I read the posts on MSNBC, I can only wonder. How could it be that our country has become so calloused and uncaring. Back in the 60's, 70's, and 80's, there was such hope for kindness and caring to become the basis upon which people would genuinely act and think.
How sad that just the opposite has happened. People are crueler and more callous than they have ever been.
It's shocking that people cannot relate to and care about these very precious, cute, little animals being killed.
The world is awash in evil today. It must be that we are in the end times.
Better start making those hats...
Thousands of stinking rodents on a beach in Mississippi? How did that happen? The Democratic National Convention is in Charlotte. Maybe they got lost on the way there.
the stench is still in florida from republicans
Eau ,,,,,,,, nothing good of rotting carcass . Where is a turkey vulture when they need a bunch ?
Rats,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,oh poor little boo boo ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,dead rats are rotting in a swamp.
Add this to the list of stuff nobody gives a flying crap about.
If NBC worked as hard to report on misdeeds by Obama,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,that would be news.