Marlyand offering $200 gift cards for dead snakeheads

[jdlough]

Maryland offering $200 gift cards for dead snakehead fish

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sidesho...gift-cards-dead-snakehead-fish-163943568.html

By Eric Pfeiffer |


(AP/Ed Wray)
Getting paid to fish sounds like a dream come true to some. But does it have the same appeal if you're going up against a "fish from hell" that can travel on land and sink its teeth into a steel-toed boot?

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources Inland Fisheries (DNR) is hoping so and is offering $200 gift cards through Bass Pro Shops to residents who capture and kill a snakehead, an invasive species from Africa that is upsetting the natural order of the local ecosystem.

"We do not want snakeheads in our waters," DNR Director Don Cosden tells FoxNews.com. "This initiative is a way to remind anglers that it is important to catch and remove this invasive species of fish."


The snakehead was first seen in Maryland back in 2002, after an 18-inch adult was caught in a local pond. But the powerful fish, which has no natural predators in the region, is also a determined survivalist (they can survive for up to four days on land) and has since migrated to the nearby Potomac River and its tributaries.
It's illegal to sell snakeheads in most U.S. states. But as I reported several years ago, federal agents have uncovered illegal snakehead selling operations in several states, including New York, Texas, Florida and Missouri.

"We don't expect that anglers will eradicate the snakehead population," DNR Tidal Bass program manager Joe Love told Fox. "We do believe this promotion and inspiration of anglers can help control the snakehead population. The information we gain from the Angler's Log reports are also helpful in assessing the abundance, spread and impact of these feisty fish."


To qualify for one of the $200 gift cards and an assortment of other prizes, all you have to do is upload a photo of yourself with a dead snakehead to the DNR's Angler's Log site. The only complicated part is actually capturing and killing one of the "fish from hell."


One photo uploaded on Thursday by recreational angler Berry shows him with seven dead snakehead. He says he had to shoot them with a gun. Berry wrote that the snakehead have been noticeably devastating the local bass population. "The snakehead are simply taking over the spawning grounds," he wrote.

 

[Philster]

Re: Marlyand offering $200 gift cards for dead snakeheads

Dang. Not good.

And they survive up to four days on land.

Nice.

 

[GTS225]

Re: Marlyand offering $200 gift cards for dead snakeheads

Hmmmmm......Sounds like a good opportunity to try out a hand-crank telephone and a couple brass brazing rods. I wonder if they'd allow that, if you didn't take any other fish out?

Roger

 

[dozerII]

Re: Marlyand offering $200 gift cards for dead snakeheads

The Discovery Channel serieres, Monster Fish did an episode on these beasts and it is not good what they can do. I hope this program will help.
Glen

 

[ngt]

Re: Marlyand offering $200 gift cards for dead snakeheads

I wish I could participate in this Are they good eating? Waste not want not...

 

[dingbat]

Re: Marlyand offering $200 gift cards for dead snakeheads

And they survive up to four days on land.

Nice.

http://fishing.about.com/od/fishfacts/a/aasnakeheadpr.htm

Dr. Walter R. Courtenay (Professor Emeritus and leading federal expert on snakeheads) agrees, and tells everyone who will listen that ?I assure you that the Northern and Bullseye snakeheads are incapable of overland movements.? Moreover, Courtenay adds that any such ?land? movements by any snakehead ?must occur during the monsoon season so snakeheads can keep their bodies and breathing organ moist or else these fish will die in a matter of hours, not days!?

Dr. Jeffrey Hill (Lead Fish Researcher at the University of Florida?s Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory) agrees, adding that ?Snakeheads cannot survive drying out nor can they make extended overland migrations across dry ground, although that seems to be the message popularized in media accounts.? Remember, he said ?Snakeheads are fish, fish need water, and even though snakeheads can use atmospheric oxygen unlike most other fishes, they must remain moist to do so.?

?The appearance of any illegally introduced exotic fish is cause for concern, but not the recent hysteria we?ve been reading about with the snakehead. This is not a short-term crisis, but a long-term problem with less than catastrophic but no less real and unpredictable consequences? said Jon R. Fury, FWC Senior Fisheries Scientist for the South Florida Region.

The legend of snakehead voraciousness is built upon very few, if any hard facts, many of which have in turn been taken out of context and grossly exaggerated. Trying to debunk some of these snakehead myths Courtenay, Fury, Hill, and Shafland all agree that:

? Yes, snakeheads can ?breathe? air and live out-of-water longer than most fish can, but suggestions that these fish can live without water for up to three days is a gross exaggeration.
? Yes, snakeheads can move through shallow water, swampy conditions, and even semi-fluid mud that would immobilize many native fishes. But on dry land they only flop, wriggle, and squirm their way along for short distances, after which they will die in a matter of hours, not days.

? While there have been some local reports of snakeheads being found alive on land in their native ranges, none of the 29 Snakehead species possess the ?land-walking? attributes and abilities of the Walking Catfish, which has been in Florida since 1967. And even the Walking Catfish cannot live unless kept in a moist environment.
? Neither the infamous Northern Snakehead nor its cousin the Bullseye Snakehead are capable of making overland migrations or land movements of any kind.
? Yes, snakeheads are predators with small sharp teeth that are very similar to the native Bowfin but, NO, it is not some finned tiger waiting to pounce upon every living thing, nor is it able to single-handedly wipe out native fish communities.