Snakehead Fish in 7 States, U.S. to Ban Them

Reuters ^ | July 22, 2002 | Tom Doggett

[Shermy]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The land-walking snakehead fish that is native to Asia has been found in seven U.S. states and the Bush administration will announce on Tuesday a ban on U.S. imports of the predatory fish.

The snakehead, which can grow up to 3 feet long, eats other fish and can walk across land to find new sources of food in other lakes and streams. The fish can stay out of water for up to three days.

The fish came to light this summer after several snakeheads were found in a Maryland pond. The so-called Frankenfish were dumped there by a local resident who had initially imported them to make soup.

Snakeheads have been found in six other states: Hawaii, Florida, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to the Interior Department.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton will make the announcement that 28 species of snakehead fish will be subject to an government import and trade ban, unless a special permit is granted, a department official said on Monday.

"Interstate commerce will be illegal, you can't sell them across state lines," the official said.

The fish has primarily been imported to the United States for its excellent taste, even when eaten smoked or dried.

"Soup and other culinary delights, that's how it's gotten over here," the official said.

A recipe for watercress soup with snakehead fish can be found at Chinese food recipe Web site: http://www.foodno1.com

On Tuesday, Norton was also to discuss what the government will do to help affected states destroy the fish.

Draining lakes that have snakeheads runs the risk of pumping water with some of the infant fish into nearby lakes and streams.

Maryland officials are considering poisoning a small lake where at least 80 baby snakeheads have been found.

A scientific plan this week is expected to test various chemicals on the baby snakeheads to pinpoint the best way to kill them.

"If they got into the larger (water) system, they could alter the food chain and displace other species," said John Surrick, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The people of northern Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma) believe a snakehead fish is a reincarnated sinner.

The freshwater fish has an ugly wide mouth and heavy scales, making it look like a snake's head and letting it swallow prey as large as it is.

Adults eat fish, frogs, aquatic birds and small mammals, while juvenile snakehead fish prey on earthworms, water bugs, tadpoles, dragonfly larvae and other organisms.

With sharp teeth and powerful jaws, big snakeheads can bite other fish in half

[DBtoo]

This is one of the craziest things I've ever heard. They almost sound like demon fish. Can fish be demonic? (Just kidding, I think....)

[Catspaw]

There I was, no sh!t, trident in one hand, garbage lid-- er, SHIELD in the other. Slowly he circled my boat..."

Ah, memories of my Uncle Bill spearing carp in the ditches around my grandpa's land when they came in to spawn....

[galt-jw]

I think its time we released some God awful creature in these f*cked up countries where this crap comes from....damn japanese beetles and all this other crap...what is the most hostile freaking creature we can send these lizards?

the southeastern farting crocogator.

[Aaron_A]

A little bit of ChiCom economic sabotage?

[CollegeRepublican]

The Maryland DNR and State Police found out who dumped the fish into the pond. They have not released his name, but he dumped two one-foot long Snakeheads into the pond about two years ago. Unfortunatly, the statute of limitations is only two years for what ever they were going to charge him with, and they are not going to press charges.

This pond was my secret bass and pike pond until someone caught one of these snakeheads this spring. The pond is located off of Maryland Rt. 3 in Crofton behind the Dunkin Donuts and the strip Mall. For a while this pond was a zoo. Hundreds of people would come and try and catch the snakeheads, but now the DNR has the pond closed while they try and figure out what to do with these fish. They are afraid that if they drain or poison the pond that the snakeheads, who can breath out of the water for up to three days and can kinda walk on their fins, will walk out of the pond and over the 50 yards through the woods to the Patuxent River. This river leads to the Chesapeake Bay, but luckily the snakehead, if it does get to the river can not live in the saltier waters of the bay.

Right now I believe that the DNR is going to put a herbicide into the lake that will kill all of the plants and then they are going to use some chemical that bonds to fish gills and prevents them from breathing. It should happen soon, like early August. Unfortunatly, my secret fishing hole, will never be the same again, now that everyone knows that this was the pond where the dreaded Killer Snakefish lived. But thats okay, I have other secret fishing places. :)

[SlickWillard]

The fish has primarily been imported to the United States for its excellent taste, even when eaten smoked or dried.

If it tastes better than bass [or more generally, the sunfish family - BLECCH!!!], then why not import the damn thing. Largemouth bass are some of the most disgusting fish on the face of the earth.

I'd only be worried if it started to supplant the catfish population.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

I've actually run into people that claim to like eating bass.

[aglax]

LMAO, That's the funniest damn thing I've heard all day!

[WindMinstrel]

Does that mean I can start trolling for them from my car? That'd be fun!

[elisabeth]

I drive by Lake Michigan every day and have been seeing goofballs swimming in it all summer...then I come home at night and see on the news how they are closing all Chicago beches because of unsanitary conditions. I, for one, stick to man-made bodies of water because of all these weird things, including frankenfish, in the water!

[Centurion2000]

Bring the big ole fish on !! ... Can you imagine trying to catch that monster .... you'd need a sword and shield in case they mass and jump into the boat.

Almost like the Clampetts going golf-hunting.

"You need a big club, shotgun and then spiked shoes to stamp em out?"

"Wheeel doggy. :)"

[Centurion2000]

what is the most hostile freaking creature we can send these lizards?

Clones of Hillary Clinton and coral snakes.

[StriperSniper]

I bet this writer could conjure up some pretty terrifying descriptions of bass and pike if he put his mind to it.

Check out this:

Professor Spencer F. Baird wrote in 1874 in the report
of the United States Commission on Fish and Fisheries:

"There is no parallel in the point of destructiveness to the bluefish among
the marine species on our coast, whatever may be the case among some
of the carnivorous fish of the South American waters. The bluefish has
been likened to an animated chopping machine, the business of which to
cut to pieces and otherwise destroy as many fish as possible in a given
space of time. All writers are unanimous in regard to the destructiveness
of bluefish. Going in large schools, in pursuit of fish not much inferior to
themselves in size, they move along like a pack of hungry wolves,
destroying everything before them. Their trail is marked by fragments of
fish and by the stain of blood in the sea as, where the fish is too large to
be swallowed entire, the hinder portion will be bitten off and the anterior
part allowed to float away or sink. It is even maintained with great
earnestness that such is the gluttony of the fish that, when the stomach
becomes full, the contents are disgorged and then again filled."

[StriperSniper]

Oops! Forgot the intro:

Basically, they are oceanic piranha! Actually, a school of Blues would destroy a school of piranha, or a shark, or even a bather who was hapless enough to get in their way (this is why many Northeast beaches close when the Blues run). Consider this quote;