The Northern Snakehead is a very special fish - what marine biologists refer to, technically, as "an X-Files type of fish." Here are some true Northern Snakehead facts that I am not making upįACT It has a snakelike head filled with sharp teeth, is an extremely aggressive eater, and can grow to be - feet long.įACT It can use its fins to crawl on land.įACT It can breathe air, and survive out of water for three days - nearly two days longer than Michael Jackson!įACT Its home stomping grounds are northern Thailand and Myanmar, where, according to an article from Reuters, people believe that "a Snakehead fish is a reincarnated sinner."įACT A lot of us seriously question whether there is any such place as "Myanmar."īut there is no question that the Northern Snakehead exists, because it has invaded the United States. I'm talking about the Northern Snakeheads, which sounds like the name of a rock band that eats live hamsters on stage, but is actually a type of fish.īut this is not just any fish. This research was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.We are about to blow a golden opportunity, here. “But having a better understanding of how amphibious they are can help us better manage their population.”īressman’s current research focuses on invasive walking catfish in Florida. But you can easily outrun them, and they won’t hurt you, your children or your pets. “Sure, they can move fairly quickly on land, and they have sharp teeth. “When snakeheads were discovered on land, it caused a lot of fear because not much was known about them,” he said. The fish tolerated all conditions but high salinity and acidity, and stagnant water with too much carbon dioxide.Īlthough it is unclear how often snakeheads leave water voluntarily and cross over land to invade other waterways, Bressman said these findings can inform how natural resources agencies plan to contain the fish. The fish, which ranged in size from about 1 inch to 27 inches, were subjected to poor water conditions including high salinity, high acidity, stagnation, crowding, high temperatures, pollution and low light. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources collected snakeheads by electrofishing in tributaries of the Potomac River and adjacent drainage ditches. Since then, the fish have been discovered in the Potomac River, Florida, New York City, Philadelphia, Massachusetts, California and North Carolina.īressman studied snakehead populations in Maryland, where the fish is considered a threat to the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Native to Asia, the northern snakehead was first found in the United States in 2002, in a Maryland pond. “The fish we studied moved super quickly on rough surfaces such as grass, and we think they use their pectoral fins to push off these three-dimensional surfaces.” candidate and the corresponding author of Emersion and terrestrial locomotion of the northern snakehead on multiple substrates. “Snakeheads move more quickly and erratically than once believed,” said Bressman, a Ph.D. These combined motions could help the snakehead travel across uneven surfaces such as grass. 21 in the peer-reviewed journal Integrative Organismal Biology, Wake Forest researcher Noah Bressman reported for the first time the water conditions that could drive snakeheads onto land.Įarlier this month, wildlife resources officials in Georgia advised anglers to kill the fish on sight after one was caught in a Gwinnett County pond, and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission confirmed that a 28-inch northern snakehead was caught in the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh.īressman also observed the fish moving in a way no other amphibious fish do: It makes near-simultaneous rowing movements with its pectoral fins while wriggling its axial fin back and forth. They can survive on land for up to 20 hours if conditions are moist. Snakeheads eat native species of fish, frogs and crayfish, destroying the food web in some habitats.
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