Eastern Pacific Cobia

[jrodda]

I saw an instagram post today of a cobia in NE Australia. Thought it was strange, but I guess an Indian Ocean populations bleeds out to the Western Pacific. Then I found this article from 2016.


https://www.sportfishingmag.com/does-cobia-invasion-threaten-central-americas-pacific-coast/

In this case, the “jail” was an aquaculture facility off the coast of Ecuador, says noted University of California Santa Barbara marine biologist Milton Love.

And we’re not talking about a few fish on the loose. Love — one of Sport Fishing‘s longtime “Fish Facts” experts — reports tens of thousands of escaped, nearly-mature cobia “are making their way north [from Ecuador] at a rate of about 200 miles per month.”

They’ve already been found near Panama, 600 or so miles north of their origin.

Love rates the odds of the cobia reproducing and spreading as far north as California at 50:50. If that happens, “the disturbance of biodiversity could be a major issue.” One possible scenario, he says, “is for these fish to become well established and start chomping down on native species.”


I haven’t heard anything else about this newfound eastern pacific stock so maybe they didn’t make it, but I would think they would be gorging on tuna crab out here and off Mexico in the summer.

[Latimeria]

I remember this years ago and was thinking... They'd rule the kelp paddies!

One day someone is going to get the surprise of his life!