Goldfish the size of dinner plates are multiplying in Alberta ponds

After discovering goldfish the size of dinner plates in ponds and canals, the government of Alberta, Canada, has a message for residents: Stop flushing your fish down the toilet.

"It's quite surprising how large we're finding them and the sheer number," Kate Wilson, aquatic invasive species coordinator at Alberta Environment and Parks, told CBC News. In Wood Buffalo, 40 goldfish were pulled from a storm water pond, she added, which is "really scary because it means they're reproducing in the wild, they are getting quite large, and they are surviving the winters that far north."

The government is launching a new campaign called Don't Let It Loose, which will target people shopping at pet stores, aquarium supply stores, and Asian markets that sell live fish, letting them know they should never dispose of live — or dead — fish by flushing them or dumping them in ponds. Wilson said about one-third of invasive species that are threatening Alberta's native aquatic environments are from aquariums, and the government wants to get to the bottom of the problem. "Something weird is happening," she said. "It could be a group of people from somewhere else who are used to fishing for these kind of species which intentionally introduced them, which is highly illegal."

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