Maryland and Montgomery County officials yesterday began draining a lake in which the sharp-toothed snakehead fish has resurfaced after nearly two years.
Crews in boats sent electrical shocks through Pine Lake in Wheaton Regional Park, then scooped out the stunned fish before pumping out the water. Officials were reassured to find bass and other small fish, but no snakeheads.
The fish were dumped into tanks and taken to nearby Kemp Mill Park. They will be returned when the lake is refilled in a couple of weeks.
The crews will need about two days to drain the 5-acre lake before they can search the exposed mud flats for snakeheads and their egg patches.
The fish can breath outside of water and slither along land on its fins.
A 19-inch snakehead was caught Monday afternoon by Terry Wintermoyer, 23, of Silver Spring. Officials determined the fish was a northern snakehead like those caught two years ago in a private pond at Crofton, in Anne Arundel County. Crews sprayed poison on that pond to kill about 1,000 juvenile and six adult snakeheads.
They also determined the snakehead found Monday was a 4-year-old female in the early stages of producing eggs but had not yet spawned, said Steve Early of the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
The typical spawning season for the northern snakehead is early summer. A full-sized snakehead can grow to nearly 4 feet long and weigh as much as 15 pounds. The northern snakeheads are native to China and Korea where they are considered a delicacy. They are imported into the United States for food and as aquarium fish.
Some naturalists speculate the owners of snakeheads dump the fish in waterways when they become too big for their aquariums. The fish is banned nationwide from outdoor waterways but ownership is permitted.
Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan said yesterday he is preparing an executive regulation to ban the sale and possession of the northern snakehead in the county.
“Everybody, including me, has had a good laugh about the ’Frankenfish,’ but the discovery of one of those predatory animals in the county is no laughing matter for our environment,” he said.
Though officials say the fish is harmless to humans, it can kill other fish, frogs and even ducks.
Officials also say the snakehead can dominate an ecosystem, and they fear any in Pine Lake could get into Northwest Branch, which is a tributary of the Anacostia River. The Anacostia eventually flows into the Potomac River.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.