HANDLE WITH CARE. JEFF LITTLE SHOWS
OFF THIS SNAKEHEAD’S CHOMPERS. PHOTO: JEFF LITTLE
[CONSERVATION] ALIEN SPECIES T
he headline 11 years ago was alarming: “Fisherman Catches Fran- kenfish!” When northern snakehead, a species native to Asia that can move over land and breath air, was caught in a small pond outside of Bal- timore, Maryland, the media, local citizens and fisheries biologists freaked out. Even though that pond was poisoned to kill every snakehead within, the species soon spread to the Potomac River and throughout the mid- Atlantic coast. With little hope of eliminating these alien invaders, fisheries scientists are trying to monitor and control their expansion. John Odenkirk, a research advisor with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF), has been working on the snakehead prob- lem for 10 years. While Odenkirk doesn’t advocate the spread of snake- head, he admits that there is little hope of eradicating the species. “They’re here,” he says, “question is: what are we going to do about it?” That’s where kayak anglers come in. “People ask me about catching snakehead,” Odenkirk says, “I tell them to get a kayak.” He explains that the fish live in shallow, weed-choked water that is best accessed by kayak. Kayak angler Charlie Hill, a member of the Potomac River Smallmouth Club, has turned his attention to targeting these aggressive fish. Snake- head are one of the biggest and meanest predators that live in the Po- tomac; the fish are fun to catch and they taste great. Hill targets snakehead with noisy top-water frogs in murky, vegetation-filled creeks and coves. Odenkirk adds that snakehead love to patrol the muddy flats between the vegetation and shoreline best accessed by a shallow-draft boat.
26 …KAYAK ANGLER SUMMER/FALL 2013
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY OF INVASIVE FISH BY HERSCHEL FINCH
Hill and other anglers are on the front line of efforts to study snake- head. “We report each fish that we catch to the VDGIF,” he says, “many times anglers are the first to discover a new population of these fish.” Odenkirk says that anglers are an invaluable asset to studying these hardy fish. “If you decide to keep one,” he warns, “be sure to kill it before you head home; live snakeheads are illegal to possess.” Hill worries that aggressive snakehead will compete with native fish for habitat and food. But according to Odenkirk, that doesn’t seem to be happening. While it would be impossible to monitor every aspect of an ecosystem for the snakehead’s effect, Odenkirk has focused on count- ing the numbers of largemouth bass in areas with known snakehead populations. “We’ve actually seen a relative abundance of largemouth over the past 10 years,” he says, “my core belief is snakehead are not affecting bass populations.”
Still, numbers of snakehead are also on the rise. “If the snakehead numbers plateau in the next few years, we may be able to control the new species,” he says, “if the population continues to grow for 10 or 15 years, we may have a bigger problem.” With any luck, the snakehead will follow the path of other invasive spe- cies turned sportfish, such as peacock bass, Asian carp and blue catfish. While the snakehead’s effect on local environments is hard to determine, one thing is for sure—the Frankenfish is fun to catch!
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