| Over the past several years fisheries
biologists and fisherman across the US have become increasingly concerned
by an invasive species of fish that has been found living in the wild in
several US states, the snakehead. The Northern Snakehead, Channa argus,
is is a top-tier predator that can live out of water for days at a time, cross land to find new
territories, and has a ferocious appetite for other fish. They have been
known to eat frogs, birds, and even small mammals. Indigenous to eastern Asia the northern snakehead has been fairly
common in the in the food market and some of the 28 species of snakeheads
have been sold in the pet industry. Some snakehead species can reach lengths of up to 40 inches. Growing to
large for most aquariums, some owners have made the horrible mistake of
releasing the fish into the wild once they outgrow their aquarium. A second
species of snakehead, the giant snakehead, Channa micropeltes,
sometimes called the red or redline snakehead has also been found in US
waterways. The snakehead has been found in the wild in several
states including Arkansas (2008), California (1997), Florida (2000), Hawaii, Maine (1976), Maryland (5/02), Massachusetts
(2001), North
Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania (7/04), Rhode Island, and Virginia (9/04).
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| Why should we be worried about the snakeheads?
As noted above the snakeheads are a top-tier predator meaning they have few
if any natural predators. Females are known to produce up to 15,000 eggs.
As noted below in the Crofton Maryland case below, within two years of
their introduction to a four acre pond, snakeheads outnumbered the the
native species who had been in the pond for years longer. Snakeheads could
also introduce new parasites or diseases. They will also compete with
native species for food and shelter. The bottom line is when people release
their non-native pets into the wild it can cause all sorts of problems both
environmentally and economically. So many potential problems in fact,
it is impossible for anyone to know or understand the long term
ramifications of these actions. |
| On May 18th, 2002 an 18 inch
snakehead was caught in a four acre pond near Crofton Maryland. I June of
the same year another fisherman caught a 26 inch snakehead, and latter
caught 6 juvenile snakeheads with a dip net. Subsequent electro-fishing by
the Maryland
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) revealed more than 100 young
snakeheads. It was eventually learned that a local resident had purchased
two live snakeheads at a fish market and released them into the pond in
2000.
Latter in 2002 a plan to eradicate the fish was proposed and approved. The
plan was was basically a two step process where first a herbicide would be
applied to the pond to kill all aquatic plant life then after one to two
weeks
rotenone would be added to the pond to kill all the fish living in the
pond.
On September 4th 2002 the Maryland (DNR) applied rotenone to pond in the Crofton
area and 2 smaller ponds in the area in an attempt to eradicate the Northern Snakehead
from the area. These ponds are approximately 100 yards from the Little Patuxent River. The results were shocking and
disturbing, more than 1,250 juvenile and 6 adult Northern Snakeheads were
killed along with all the other fish in the pond. All of the
snakeheads recovered came from the one four acre pond.
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| It is illegal in at least seventeen states to
possess live snakeheads: Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida,
Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
South Dakota, Texas, Utah and
Washington.
In January 2005 a Los Angeles, California area supermarket owner Daniel
Rhee and his Assi Super Incorporated was fined almost $230,000 and given 3
years probation for importing and selling live snakehead fish. Rhee was
smuggling about $25,000 dollars worth of the fish per year from Korea. They
were imported labeled as "sea bass" and/or "freshwater bass" |
