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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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Leave a Comment:
Isn't there a open season on those nasty things, I say if ya see one shoot it.
Hecky, I says scoop up them there varmints and sautee em for a nice gumbo. Best be utilizin' them critters by gnawin' on em rather than leaving em out in the sun so's they'll go to spoilin' and providin' a feast fer the vultures.
Did anyone else think Princess Bride - Rodents of Unusual Size?
I don't think they exist.
Saw Romney down there visiting, obviously there are too many Nutria still alive!
Saw Obama down there eating off the beach! Why not, he ate dog as a kid!
You know, these look amazingly like the so-called 'Montauk Monster'.
i think Im going to lose my lunch
these nutria were introduced by humans. man just doesn't get it. you don't mess with nature. i live in mn and we are having the same problem with carp. now they are afraid that the carp might invade the great lakes. there's a term in physics that applies to basically anything. " for every action, there is a reaction". what's the saying? " you don't mess with mother nature".
Man also introduced the modern horse to North America. People seem to have no problem with trying to get rid of Nutria or Asian carp but try to round up wild horses and everyone gets upset.
That's because horses don't do anywhere near as much damage in the ecosystem as some of the other species of animals that have been introduced. There are insects that are so aggressive that they are killing or invading areas of native instects and nutria are causing the destruction of water banks as the article states. Horses are the lowest on the list of introduced animals that are causing damage. If anything, horses have proven more valuable than any of these other animals and are seen more of a pro than a con in species introduced.
Horses have been used as both work and pleasure animals, and when things were rough, meat animals as well. They are even being used as therapy animals for children and adults who have been traumatized by physical and emotional ailments, even mental illness.
When you can ride a Nutria or Asian carp, or teach them to plow a field or pull logs, get back with us.
Dinner is served!... Taste like Chicken!
Who needs EPA, defund them now.
Pretty disgusting if you ask me. Gross !
Send them to Hati--they needs food.
To bad the carcasses aren't those of the filthy, corrupt, non representative, lying idiots we have in washington and especially in congress.
Not a single politician has represented the wishes of the american people in the last 12 years.
They are so inundated with their campaigns and their donors that they have forgotten why they were elected.
R.I.C.O. suits them fine
Jim, your comments don't have anything to do with stinky dead rats, but man you are right on about what you said, to h3ll with all them politicians no more pretty boys in congress. Forget parties and elect some real folks.
Hey guys, it's time to hire the crew from the new TV program "Rat 'Bastards" to come out and get the job done the right way!!!!
I thought the Republican convention was over?
@Michael French: I read that nutri (swamp rats) and armadillos are native to the Americas, with some variation in what can be found in South, Central and North America.
Mr. French is correct. Nutria were introduced from S. America to N. America for their fur.
Just get out there in your waders and a shovel, poke it with the shovel first to pop it, any of the guts and what not will just get on the waders then scoop-em up into the trash can or whatever they're using to haul them away. Maybe use a mask to help with the smell but really in this heat nothing is going to help.
Isn't it time for the libs to start blaming Bush for this one, too? We know they won't blame Obummer. The president can't anything about the weather, can he? Oh, but Katrina was Bushes fault. Stoopid libs. At leat this site is mentioning the storm still. Censored News Network has stopped.
I'm pretty sure it was the slow aid responses to Katrina that people are/were blaming Bush for...not the weather itself. Although some small portion of the fault of that was due to the people in the area who went a little crazy and started shooting at helicopters that were trying to rescue and drop off supplies when they were finally moblizing.
I soooo want to go poke those with a stick.
See, it is more than fossil fuel extraction and use that is turning the United States into a Tropical Paradise. Snakes in the Florida everglades, piranhas in the Great Lakes, Mitt Romney promising to turn the America terrain like the Arab homelands.
Know when to really get scared, know when Climate Change has really happened? When it starts snowing in the Congo.........
Our grandchildren will one day wonder how America turned into jungles and desert wastelands as giant anacondas runs free.
Looking forward to 12-21-12 as the "Great Flip" triggers the "Big Change"
But, a big but, (not Nikki Minaj butt) can all be avoided if we re-elect President Barack Obama.
That's right, your God can fix everything. Oh, wait....
Do you realize that the Keystone Pipeling was approved by the ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY??? Every Dept said yeah .... only Obama said no. Ya think he has a back room deals with the Middle Eastern countries.
I THINK SO!!
bashbrothers do you think it could have been the plethora of state governments that understood that running a pipeline next to their water supply would be dangerous? Oil is not worth the price if its going to cost the entire center of the country its drinking water. Esp. b/c the government would be asked to fix it and not the oil company....
Come on, why hasen't someone said they are washed up republicans from the convention in Florida.
You talking about the brutha's and sista's?? Oh ... you meant the rats that aren't human?? Obama will try to get them a voter registration card!! They do definitely coralate with the Dem party!
Correlate you racist hick.
Put a bounty on em'. That could be a big factor in Obama's job creation plan!
Why does everyone who believes that free enterprise drives the economy (read: Mitt supporters) think Obama has anything to do with the private industry not hiring people? I thought according to those believers that the government didn't create jobs?
Obviously you don't run a small business basedrum777. If you did you would understand why we aren't hiring.
What would you call something that resembles a pig and a rat? A prig? A prat? A ratig? I don't care whatcha call it, it's ugly and I hope at least a portion of its numbers is eradicated.
Nancy Pelosi!
I thought they were referring to a political convention..........Dang, someone beat me to it.
They're collecting them now and shipping them to N.C.!
Thems good eats!! Deep fry them with cajun sauces and sausage and rice and the folks in N.O. can have BBQs for months!