Snakehead Caught in Pine Lake, Wheaton Park

[treed942000]

Here is an article I found in the Washington Post.  This brings great concern to surrounding water bodies.

TReed

Snakehead Fish Found in Wheaton Lake



Associated Press
Wednesday, April 28, 2004; 1:37 PM


A fisherman at a park lake caught a northern snakehead, the same invasive species of voracious fish found in 2002 in a pond in Anne Arundel County, the state Department of Natural Resources announced Wednesday.

The DNR released few details on the fish, except to say that it was 19 inches long and found in Pine Lake at Wheaton Regional Park. Only one fish has been found so far. The agency planned a briefing later this afternoon to release more details.

More than 1,000 juvenile snakeheads and six adults were found in the Crofton pond, all traced to a Maryland man who discarded two fish after buying them live in a New York market. State officials sprayed a fish poison in the 4-acre pond to kill the entire population.

The DNR said that in the latest case, "action to contain the contents of the lake has been taken," according to a news release.

The predatory fish, native to China, can breathe air and slither on land for short distances, raising concerns they could begin breeding in other ponds and rivers and threaten fish there.

[FishDeepCreek]

Pine lake eh, I grew up fishing that lake too. Used to catch a ton of little bullheads, and gills in there when i was a kid. Would be sad to see that lake ruined.

[treed942000]

A Creepy Catch of The Day


By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 29, 2004; Page B01


The snakehead fish, a voracious Asian invader that's been known to breathe out of water and scoot short distances over land, has reappeared in Maryland, state authorities announced yesterday.

A 19-inch northern snakehead was caught Monday at a lake in Wheaton Regional Park -- the first appearance of the toothy green fish in the area since 2002, when the state of Maryland had to poison a pond in Crofton to prevent snakeheads there from wiggling away.

Unlike the Crofton snakeheads, the newly caught fish was not in an isolated fishing hole. Pine Lake drains into the Northwest Branch, which goes to the Anacostia River and the Potomac River.

Yesterday, authorities tried to play down the possibility that the predatory fish had spread, saying they used electric shocks and large nets to gather fish from the surrounding waters and had found no other snakeheads.

Still, to be sure, they said they will drain the five-acre lake beginning today.

"I'll be confident when the pond is drained," said Steve Early of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The northern snakehead is native to China and Korea and is prized as a food in several Asian countries. It is imported to the United States for sale in some fish markets and as an aquarium fish.

If it is released in a pond or lake in this area, experts say, the snakehead is instantly at the top of the food chain: It can grow as large as 47 inches long and weigh 15 pounds. The fish can clean out a pond of native fish, officials said, and it also eats insects -- probably including this year's expected bumper crop of cicadas.

The snakehead caught Monday appears to be about 4 years old -- old enough to reproduce, though it is still too early in the year for breeding, Early said yesterday. Because the fish had not been dissected, authorities were not sure of its sex.

The draining of the lake, which is no deeper than eight feet, will begin this afternoon and probably be completed tomorrow morning, authorities said. They said native fish will first be captured and then reintroduced to the lake when it fills again with water.

Early said that authorities would continue to look for snakeheads in other bodies of water, including downstream. But he said that with a food-laden environment such as Pine Lake, a snakehead would be unlikely to leave.

"If they've got a good place to live, they're not moving," he said.

The fish was caught by Terry Wintermoyer, 23, of Silver Spring, who was trying to catch a largemouth bass with a lure called a top-water spinner.

Wintermoyer said yesterday that he had made several casts from the shore when he saw something dart out from under an underwater rock and take the hook.

"I was pretty positive it was about a 25- or 30-pound largemouth, the way it was fighting on the line," Wintermoyer said. "It's probably the most fighting fish I've seen so far."

When he finally landed the fish, Wintermoyer said, he was surprised to find a sleek, scaly thing weighing only about four pounds. He said it had the head of snake and the teeth of a shark.

"I hadn't seen anything like it in my whole life," he said.

Wintermoyer said that a friend recognized the fish from news coverage about the Crofton snakeheads. They put it in a plastic bag and took it to a nearby station of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Police.

There, he held the bag up in front of a window where an officer was sitting.

"I think I caught what they call a snakehead fish," Wintermoyer told the officer.

Officials confiscated the fish, which Wintermoyer said he would have eaten otherwise, and kept it in a water-filled wastebasket. Experts from the Department of Natural Resources confirmed that it was a northern snakehead.

Officials said they did not know how long the snakehead had been in the lake or who had put it there.

"I don't think there's any way to find" the culprit, said Doug Redmond of the parks commission. "If someone were to come forward and say they had done it, that's probably the only way to find out."

Redmond speculated that the snakehead may have been a pet that was released after it became too big for its aquarium. That was the case with the snakeheads in Crofton, which originally were ordered as food, then kept as pets by a man who lived near the pond.

In general, authorities sought to play down the threat posed by the fish, saying they were dangerous only to fish, not to people.

But Wintermoyer told a story that hinted otherwise.

He and his friend were debating what to do with the fish, which was lying on the ground inside the plastic bag. A park maintenance worker walked up, curious, and stuck his foot near the animal.

Suddenly, Wintermoyer said, the snakehead lunged.

"It put a pretty good tooth mark in his steel-toed boot," he said

[Fat Boy]

Cha... 25 to 30 pound largemouth.  I don't care how big a hit you get in Maryland, you don't have a chance at that kind of bass unless it's a striper, certainly not a largemouth.  And, I don't care how much a fish fights, you can tell a 4 pound fish from a 25 pound one, of any kind.  And, if they were in little ol' Pine Lake, that would be as newsworthy as the snake head. 

Still, it makes for good reading.  These fish do pose somewhat of a threat, but I think it's a bit overstated.  There would have to be a breeding pair in there to do any damage.  I guess we'll find out when the lake is drained.

Thanks for sharing the articles T, much appreciated.

[treed942000]

Here is my last update on the Snakehead.  It looks like we are in the clear of having any problems.

TReed

Confidence Grows That Wheaton Lake Is 'Snakehead-Free'


By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 4, 2004; Page B02


The search for a northern snakehead turned up about 3,000 fish in a Wheaton lake -- including an African tilapia -- but no signs of a mate for the predatory fish that an angler pulled from the pond a week ago.

With no evidence of more snakeheads or their eggs in Pine Lake, officials were "as close as we can be to sure that it's snakehead-free," said Doug Redmond of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which oversees the small lake at Wheaton Regional Park.

The northern snakehead, native to China and Korea, is a voracious predator capable of clearing out a pond of native fish. Worse yet, it can breathe air and slither short distances over land to reach other feeding areas.

The fish holds a special terror for Maryland officials because of its appearance in a Crofton pond in 2002. In that case, the catch of a single snakehead led to a more distressing discovery: The pond was home to a mating pair of fish, which had produced thousands of babies.

The more recent case began when Terry Wintermoyer, fishing for bass, hooked a 19-inch snakehead with an artificial lure. The ferocious fish lived up to its reputation, remaining alive for hours out of the water and lunging at the steel-toed boot of a man who stepped too close to it.

State officials decided to drain the five-acre lake, whose water flows into the Northwest Branch and on to the Anacostia and Potomac rivers. That process began Thursday, as workers used a boat that puts off electric current to stun and remove the lake's fish.

By Sunday, officials could see much of the eight-foot-deep lake's muddy bottom. Redmond said he was surprised at how little debris there was in the roughly 40-year-old lake.

"There weren't bicycles. There weren't washing machines," Redmond said. "When we got down to the bottom, it was mud and stumps."

Redmond said the pumps filtered out very small things into large bags. He said that he had not yet checked the bags for evidence of snakehead eggs or baby fish but that he believed it was unlikely there would be any because there was no evidence that the female snakehead had a mate.

There were several species common to ponds in the region, such as largemouth bass and sunfish. But there also were several fish that, like the snakehead, were aliens in these waters.

Among the carp were several specimens weighing about 30 pounds, the largest fish in the lake, and koi, the large goldfish familiar from ornamental ponds.

Officials said they caught a single tilapia -- a native of Africa that is popular here as a food fish.

How did this fish get to a park in Wheaton?

"It would have gotten there the same way the snakehead got there" -- someone likely released the fish into the pond, said Steve Early of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Officials said some of the native fish were taken to a hatchery and will be returned to the lake after it is refilled by a small stream. They are looking for homes for the carp and koi in other area parks. It was unclear what happened to the tilapia, which scientists said posed little ecological threat.

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) has said he will ban the possession of snakeheads in the county. Maryland officials are drafting regulations to ban the sale or possession of the fish statewide.

It is already illegal to place such a fish into state waters. Early said that people who want to get rid of a fish they have kept as a pet should kill it by freezing it or contact a pet store for instructions on disposing of it.