Experts worried that snakeheads in the Potomac, by eating other fish or out-competing them for food, could drive down numbers of more desirable species, such as shad or largemouth bass. “Out of eight species of salmon here, six are introduced,” Willink says. These fish prefer freshwater habitats with a variety of hiding places like logs and underwater plants. It’s hard to estimate the extent of the snakehead’s impact on largemouth bass and other Potomac species. What is Being Done About it. . ), In southern Florida, a close relative of the northern snakehead, the bullseye or cobra snakehead, has been living for a few years in the canals of BrowardCounty. It travels over land with a wriggling motion and moves up to a quarter of a mile to reach a new waterway. “We’re just trying to preserve what is left, because once it’s gone, it’s gone.” Since the Lake Michigan snakehead was found in a fairly deep harbor with little vegetation—an unlikely snakehead habitat—Willink surmises that the fish was probably just tossed into the water. When she demurred, he kept them in his aquarium and later released them. Although 16 adult snakeheads had been caught in the Potomac by that time, no one knew whether they’d been born there or whether someone had just tossed them in—or even how common they were. “Snakeheads are—they’re kind of bad-asses,” Odenkirk said. Florida is home to dozens of introduced fish. The Potomac is not the river it was when George Washington looked upon it from Mount Vernon and made good money selling native shad. In the United States, the fish is considered to be a highly invasive species. A reporter from the Baltimore Sun called it “a companion for the Creature from the Black Lagoon.” The scariest reports, fortunately, turned out to be mistaken. He’s analyzing DNA from 16 fish; if some of the Potomac specimens are closely related, it’s likely that the fish bred in the river. But the other introduced species aren’t the point; the native fish are, says Dan Simberloff, an ecologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Many species of snakehead have been sold through the aquarium industry in pet stores and via the Internet. One action that can be taken but is frowned upon is a tactic known as Rotenone. The northern snakehead (Channa argus) is a native of the Yangtze River basin in China. To prevent this unwanted invader from coming into the province, Ontario has regulated all 28 species of snakehead (including Northern Snakehead) as prohibited under the Invasive Species Act. Helen Fields is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. She will write about more or less anything, but she focuses on biology. The problem with this method is that it also kills off any and every other species of fish and other animals that are in the area as well. One such invasive species is the snakehead fish in the United States. “Listen, Norma,” the sheriff says. Stopping the invasion might seem impossible, but another non-native species might be able to help. “He loved that dog,” she says, crying. About the snakehead, he says, “I’m not optimistic.”. A snakehead fish is considered a non-native invasive species, which means it affects native species by competing for food and habitat. Privacy Statement Invasion of the Snakeheads The voracious “Frankenfish” has turned up in the Potomac River, Lake Michigan and a California lake, sparking fears of an ecological Armageddon. On an overcast Friday morning in July, I joined a few dozen anglers at Columbia Island Marina in Arlington, Virginia, across a narrow channel from the Pentagon. The way the biologists see it, the fish were getting ready to spawn. It’s a critical question—if the fish were just recently dumped in the river, there’s a chance they’ll die without having generated a self-sustaining population—but it will require more than a rod and reel or a stun gun to answer. Nutria, imported from South America as a source of fur, devour plant roots in marshes along the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake. A small Snakehead that cost less than $ 7 to buy will soon grow up to be a large adult Snakehead that requires live fish for $ 7 – a day! This fish prefers stagnant shallow ponds,swamps, or slow moving streams and rivers with mud substrate and aquatic vegetation. . An unidentified angler caught this 12-inch northern snakehead fish at Marshall Hall on the Potomac River IN 2004, and the invasive species hasn't slowed its harmful impact. Northern snakeheads can get up to three feet in length. Snakeheads (Channidae), as a group, are known as voracious predators on fishes, amphibians and crustaceans … They’re fished commercially and raised in fish farms in Asia. The northern snakehead is a predatory fish native to China's Yangtze River region. “We just can’t get back in those areas.”. They’ve also been sold live in markets in the United States. The ban made it illegal to import all live snakehead species, including the colorful tropical species that populate the odd aquarium. A couple more appeared in Florida waters in 2000. Steve Early, assistant director in the fisheries service at the DNR, worked on the Crofton pond in 2002 and has handled some of the Potomac snakeheads. She nods, identifying it as her husband’s. Its long dorsal fin runs along most of its back. null Channa argus (Northern Snakehead) has not yet had any direct impacts on aquatic ecosystems in the Chesapeake Bay region, or in North America, since no populations are known to be established. Cliff Magnus is a semiprofessional fisherman (he says he’s been sponsored for the past ten years by “Team Spouse,” a.k.a. Kill the fish by freezing it or putting it on ice for an extended length of time. On the one hand, he said, he was disappointed he’d failed to catch one. He lifted the top of a nearby freezer chest, rooted around and pulled out a long, black lump. But other officials say they’re not convinced the fish are here to stay. The northern snakehead's elongated body grows to 33 inches in length. In Massachusetts, one was caught in 2001 and a second in 2004. 17th Annual Photo Contest Finalists Announced. “Well, it’s not good news,” he says of the discovery, but points out that if some snakeheads do manage to reproduce, they may never thrive in the big river. Report the sighting (see below). However, this species is regarded with great concern as a potential invader. And in July 2004, an angler caught two in a lake in a Philadelphia park. 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