WEBVTT

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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,