Canada's capital city is about to knock off thousands of goldfish. Ontario's Ottawa is getting ready to euthanize a large group of the invasive species living in a stormwater pond in the city's Central Park neighborhood, per the CBC. In a statement, city officials said they removed about 5,000 dead goldfish from the pond in Celebration Park in March, by hand and with nets. They now estimate that between 500 and 1,000 goldfish remain, but that number could be much higher, according to one expert.
"These are the kinds of fish that are extremely fecund—fancy word for they make lots of babies," says Carleton University biology professor Steven Cooke. He estimates the population could be in the millions, as a single female goldfish can produce around 6,000 offspring annually. Goldfish, considered an invasive species in Canada and the US, can quickly take over small bodies of water, getting rid of native species and disrupting aquatic plant growth. "They wind up smothering, basically dominating the waters in which they're introduced," Cooke says.
The city is required by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to euthanize all invasive fish captured in stormwater ponds. Staff will use nets to collect the goldfish, but they won't drain the pond or use chemical remedies. Cooke warned that netting alone is unlikely to eradicate the population, as missing even a few fish could allow the population to rebound, and implored locals to not set their pet goldfish free in the wild. As for where the sturdy swimmers came from? "The origin of the fish [remains] a mystery," City Councillor Riley Brockington noted in a social media post, per CTV News. (Pet store goldfish are thriving after being released in Lake Erie.)
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