Le Snakehead Is In La River

A large Indonesian snakehead fish (Channa micropeltes) was found dead in the Saint Charles River in Quebec last month - possibly the first find of this species in the wild in Quebec. It's thought to be a released pet. Need a French translation? Try this forum (towards the bottom of the page)

Rocky Horror

A guy in New York is celebrating today because his ginormous, so-ugly-its-cute pet snakehead fish, named "Rocky," has been given a reprieve by the NY Department of Environmental Conservation. As long as he applies for a permit (and pays the $500 permit fee), he can keep Rocky in a tank.

What Arkansas

Greetings, northern snakehead: Welcome to the wilds of Arkansas!

The AP is reporting that the northern snakehead (Channa argus) has been discovered for the first time in Arkansas, but if you want the story behind the story, head over to the AgTalk forums, where someone has posted a series of photos, including a whole cooler full of fish pulled from a drainage ditch. Plus, here's a link to an earlier post by the same person, who looks to be the one who made the initial discovery.

Thanks to a member of the ALIENS-L listserver for posting a link to the AgTalk forums.

Ghoul Of Fish

Yikes - it seems that the giant snakehead (Channa micropeltes) has made an appearance in British waters. According to this report from the Telegraph, an angler hoping to catch a pike on the River Witham grabbed a two-foot-long, three pound Asian snakehead fish instead. This may be the first record of this species in UK waters.

The story is getting lots of media coverage, with the usual thorough job done by the BBC, but the best title so far is going to METRO.co.uk, who proclaimed, "Man-eating 'psycho' fish found in UK."

Thanks to budak for sending in a link to this story.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species posts, from elsewhere in the blogosphere:

• Snail's Tales has a tale about discovering Japanese mystery snails in the Potomac River. (Thanks budak!)
• The Grinder, CHOW's foodie blog, posts about salmon farms in Chile.
• Over at National Geographic's NGC Blog, Elena Cruz gives folks a sneak peak of her upcoming feature called "Fishzilla! Snakehead Invasion." Hopefully it will be airing again this month because I missed it!

Stuffed.

I M IN YUR POTOMAC, EETIN YUR FISHEEZ!!!
Originally uploaded by urtica

The National Audubon Society apparently gives out these cute, cuddly snakehead fish (Channa sp., I assume) as part of their advocacy efforts. I didn't manage to score one so I had to settle for a photo.

This is the most appropriate post I could think of to celebrate the fact that I've been given a Thinking Blogger award from The Voltage Gate ;-).

Reel Big Fish

The Charlotte Observer is reporting that a man in North Carolina recently caught a northern snakehead (Channa argus) that weighed in at an impressive 13 pounds. Barry Faw snagged the giant invader while he was fishing at Lake Wylie. Unfortunately, no one, not the fisherman, nor his friends, nor the person at the neighborhood bait shop, recognized the invasive fish, and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission didn't have anyone available to inspect it...so Barry threw it back in the lake. Later the NC WRC saw photos and recognized the fish as a snakehead, but attempts to locate the fish or any of its brethren in the lake by shocking them to the surface of the water have failed. This is the second record of a Northern snakehead in Lake Wylie, the first being from 2002.

Sounds like North Carolina needs more rigorous invasive species outreach for their anglers and their bait shops.

Fun With Entrez

Let the sequencing battle begin!!!!

• Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria): 50 nucleotide sequences, 26 protein sequences
• Zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha): 386 nucleotide sequences, 63 protein sequences
• Nutria (Myocastor coypus): 81 nucleotide sequences, 39 protein sequences
• Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis): 25 nucleotide sequences, 11 protein sequences
• Brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis): 32 nucleotide sequences, 5 protein sequences
• Northern snakehead (Channa argus): 52 nucleotide sequences, 46 protein sequences
• Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis): 238 nucleotide sequences, 89 protein sequences
• Frog Chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis): 439 nucleotide sequences, 3 protein sequences

Decision goes to: Zebra mussel, with a combined 449 sequences. Go Team Zebra Mussel!!!

Four Long Years

It's been four years since the northern snakehead (Channa argus) hit the big time in the Potomac River, and while the fish have continued to spread successfully, scientists have not as of yet found any adverse affects caused by the invasion. Could it be that the species will find a niche in the ecosystem with nary a negative impact? It's more likely that it will just be many years before the full effects on the Potomac are known. Either way, there's no realistic chance of eradicating the fish, so they're here to stay. National Geographic News has the full story.

Fun with Search

Here's what visitors were searching the ISW for in the month of April, using that little search window over on the left side of the page: Top search phrases

1. grey squirrel
2. phytophtora
3. lonicera shrub
4. cane toad
5. law

Other words that ranked high included snakehead, knotweed and ash borer.

1275 Posts, and who knows how many stories

Happy Birthday...uh...to me! :-)

It has been a great four years for the Invasive Species Weblog. I have learned a lot and I hope you readers have too. Too busy for a real post right now so instead here are a link to some my faves:

• My review of the PBS special: "Strange Days on Planet Earth - Invaders."
• Japan's official list of invasive species, translated into English...way before anyone else did it (thanks to a helpful ISW reader!).
• Some blogging about the snakehead fish saga.
• Guest blogger Jason South's two posts about monk parakeets.
• "Oh Poo!" Now that was fun to write :-). And while we're at it, how can I not mention "Oh Crappie"?

Walking in Memphis?

The AP (via ABC News) is reporting that a snakehead (Channa sp.) was found last month in a lake in Memphis, Tennessee. The fish, which was discovered in Shelby Forest State Park, was 17 inches long...and dead. Concerned that other, living specimens may be present, wildlife officials are planning a fish count to assess the situation. If more snakeheads are found there is a chance the lake, a popular year-round fishing site, may be drained. This is the first record of a snakehead found in the wild in Tennessee, and brings the total number of U.S. states where this species has been found outside of captivity to ten.

Update 01/17: According to this record from the USGS Non-Indigenous Aquatic Species Alert System, the fish was originally misidentified as a northern snakehead (Channa argus) and has now been identified as a giant snakehead (Channa micropeltes). Giant snakehead is a tropical species and is not thought to pose the same risk of invading temperate bodies of water as the northern snakehead.

Kings of Queens

The northern snakehead (Channa argus) has been found in the wild in New York, according to this story from the Queens Chronicle. So far this summer, state workers have found at least five of the famous fish in lakes in Flushing Meadows Park. So, come on, fess up, who dumped them there?

Time for a School Kill?

Last year the ISW featured a post about a northern snakehead (Channa argus) found in a pond in Pennsylvania. Now there's an update from the BASS Times, and news is not good. Many more snakeheads have been caught this season, ranging from a hefty 5-pounder to one only 4.5 inches long. That means the snakeheads not only survived the winter, but they have likely established breeding populations. How long before one is caught in the Schuylkill or Delaware River? Officials are worried, but the article doesn't mention any plans in the works to prevent that from happening.

No Nukes is Good Nukes?

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is considering banning the use of the nuclear worm (Namalycastis sp.) as bait, according to this story in The Bay Journal. The report says officials are wary after problems with invasive snakehead fish and are looking closely at regulating any imported bait. Some bait shops have already stopped selling the worms, while others have noted demand is high for this large, cheap hook-baiting option.

Around the World in 7 Days - North America

In an admitted publicity stunt, government officials in the Western U.S. are attempting to have the northern snakehead (Channa argus) declared as an endangered species. According to this story at Hometown Annapolis, the group is applying to get an invasive fish listed as endangered in order to draw attention to their claim that the Endangered Species Act infringes on the rights of private property owners. Hope the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't have to waste too much money and time on this one.

My Kind of Town

This is my fourth post about snakeheads this month, but how could I avoid reporting that the Northern snakehead (Channa argus) has been found in Chicago? The email about it arrived in my inbox today via the NAS Alert System - you can view the specimen record here. The adult fish was found in Lake Michigan, a first for Illinois and a first for the Great Lakes ecosystem. Of course the story is making the media rounds, with liberal use of words like "Frankenfish" and "terror." Read about it in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Duluth News-Tribune, or MLive.com.

Night of the Frankenfish

Last night I watched "Snakehead Terror" and about half of "Frankenfish" on the Sci-Fi Channel. That's 3 hours of my life I'll never get back :-( "Snakehead Terror" starred Bruce 'I'll never get another role like the one I had on B5' Boxleitner, and was about a lake that sounded a lot like Crofton Pond in Maryland. After poisoning the pond ruined the livelihood of many of the town's businesspeople, a few of them got together and decided to add Human Growth Hormone to the water to speed up the growth of the new fish. Unfortunately there were rotenone-resistant snakeheads still in the lake, and HGH caused them to grow eight feet long and to crave human flesh. "Frankenfish" seemed to be about an ecccentric trophy hunter who paid Asian gangmembers (Snakeheads?) to release a gigantic snakehead into the swamps of New Orleans. I'm not exactly sure though, because I fell asleep after the second houseboat owner met his demise :-).

Coochie Coochie Coo

From the absurdly gigantic to the tiny, and dare I say, cute? Just because it faded away from the front page, doesn't mean the snakehead problem in the Potomac River has gone away. The Washington Post is now reporting that a 3-inch-young northern snakehead (Channa argus) has been discovered near Alexandria, Virginia, an indiciation that the species in breeding in the wild. For background about the Potomac invasion from the ISW, click here.

Thanks to a member of the ALIENS-L listserver for a heads up about this story.

Return of Frankenfish

Sci-Fi Channel is at it again. Not content with it's own version of snakehead fish (Channa spp.) gone wild, this weekend they're airing "Frankenfish," a charming tale about escaped mutated fish that attack houseboats in a Louisiana bayou. Don't worry, if you missed Sci-Fi's "Snakehead Terror" a few months back, they'll be airing it again right before the "Frankenfish" premiere.