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Snakeheads worry fisheries experts

Officials from Virginia, Maryland, D.C. and federal agencies join forces to eliminate predator from the Potomac River.

By RUSTY DENNEN

Date published: 5/29/2004

By RUSTY DENNEN

Are exotic snakehead fish spawning in the Potomac River?

The concern is growing now that a fourth specimen of the voracious predator was caught this month. A commercial fisherman netted the 1-pound female northern snakehead Thursday in Pohick Bay, near Pohick Bay Regional Park and Fort Belvoir.

Three other snakeheads were caught by recreational fishermen between May 7 and May 15 in the Potomac and its tributaries below Washington.

Those captures prompted a meeting Monday in Colonial Beach of a panel of fisheries agencies.

Representatives of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, District of Columbia Fish and Wildlife Division, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Potomac River Fisheries Commission and Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin are coordinating efforts to find--and eliminate--the fish.

If there are any breeding adults in the Potomac, now is the time to find them because it's spawning season for the fish, said Julia Dixon, spokeswoman for the Virginia game department.

"We'd be doing some electrofishing, seine-netting and other sampling," Dixon said.

But finding and catching the fish could be a challenge.

In their native waters in China, northern snakeheads spawn in shallow, weedy waters. They can grow to 40 inches and weigh up to 15 pounds.

"These fish are rather skittish about boat motors. You almost have to sneak up on them," Dixon said.

Scientists say that a breeding population of snakeheads in the river would be disastrous for native species, which could be quickly crowded out by the aggressive predators.

The agencies will be asking for fishermen's help.

"With thousands of anglers on the Potomac, the most effective method of sampling for these fish is for anglers to report any fish that they suspect could be a snakehead," Dixon said. Snakeheads are freshwater fish that would not venture into brackish or salt water.

But they are capable of living out of water for several days, and can wriggle from one pond to another.

A single snakehead was caught April 26 in Pine Lake in Wheaton, Md. The lake was drained; no other snakeheads were found.

Dixon said there have been no confirmed reports of snakeheads in other tidal rivers draining into the Chesapeake Bay, though there have been many cases of mistaken identity.

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Date published: 5/29/2004