Authorities of American wildlife agency are seeking to control snakehead fish in the state of Missouri and many other states.
Chinese snakehead fish can live for a few days without water. Image: Ryan Hagerty/USFWS
In a new notice, the Missouri Conservation Agency (MDC) reminds Chinese snakehead fishermen as a species that is banned from import and export, trading or owned in this state. If they come across them in nature, MDC recommends that people kill the fish immediately by leaving their heads and guts, following IFL Science. Authorities also emphasized never releasing Chinese snakehead fish or leaving them on the shore because they can survive the water and swim back to the place of residence or to other water.
“Chinese snakehead fish is an invasive species that can reduce the number of other fish species. Cau people can provide useful information about their location by reporting the captured cases,” said Angela Sokolowski, ecosystem of abuse species in MDC, said.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) has previously made the same recommendation on how to handle snakehead fish in the countryside. But instead of leaving their heads, they proposed to destroy the fish by freezing them or spreading ice on top for a long time.
Chinese snakehead fish (Channa argus) Not native animals in North America. Living naturally in lakes in Russia and East Asia, this freshwater fish has come to the US and thrives in the past two decades, based on the acts of extremely violent hunting and competing with local meat animals. They are sold at landscape, markets and some restaurants in some big cities.
With a snake -like head, Chinese snakehead fish has a meter long with a dark speckled motif. They can even crawl zigzag on the ground like snakes. Despite the fish with bone, Chinese snakehead fish can breathe, thereby surviving in the lack of oxygen waters. They also survive a few days in the water environment, as long as the skin is still moist.
Chinese snakehead fish was first recorded in the US in the summer of 2002 when a fisherman caught a model living in the pond at Crofton, Maryland. Biologists are quickly deployed to the Crofton Pond and spray fish to kill fish. They found that the water pond was home to thousands of mature snakehead fish and the population has spread to the whole region.
In addition to Missouri, Chinese snakehead fish population is proliferating in some other states in the US, including Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. As a fierce and aggressive species, the spread of Chinese snakehead fish causes fear of their potential impact on the native ecosystem.