Outdoor living 8/24

Sunday, August 24, 2003

Remember the Snakehead? Last year this strange fish appeared in Maryland and captured all kinds of attention among fishermen and the general public alike. Eric Dolin recently wrote a book about the Snakehead called "A Fish Out of Water." Often the most ususual tales have humble beginnings. On a warm and muggy day in May 2002, two men went fishing at a small pond in Crofton, Maryland, which is just a short drive from the nation's captial. One of the anglers caught a fish that looked like nothing he had ever seen before. Before throwing it back, he took a few photos and later shared the photos with state fisheries biologists. They too were puzzled, but after some sleuthing they identified the fish as a northern snakehead. It didn't belong in the wild in Maryland or the entire United States, for that matter. The fish was an alien, a potentially invasive species from Asia with sharp teeth, a predilection for ravenously dining on other fish, a primitive lung, and, apparently and most amazingly, the ability to walk over land to a new body of water whenever the mood struck it. Should snakeheads establish themselves in Maryland, officials feared they could wreck havoc on the local ecosystem. In late June, more northern snakeheads were caught in the pond. Their presence became a major event, covered internationally in newspapers and magazines and on radio and television. With astonishing speed, the fish was labled a "Frankenfish," "killer fish," "pitt bull with fins," "Chinese thug fish," "x-files fish," and "the fish from hell" and became a media superstar. However, the snakeheads' days were numbered -- come September they were gone, done in with poison administered by the state of Maryland. Coverage of the snakehead story ranged from serious to silly to sensational. At its base, lay the persistently troubling issue of invasive species and their ability to harm the enironment and the economy. This fish story had everything to sustain the media frenzy that ensued; shadowy orgins, illegal activity, misinformation, exaggerations, epic battles between man and fish, the specter of ecologial doom, wanted posters, the late night talk show hosts, poison, hilarious satire, purported links to terrorism, theme songs, culinary concoctions and even medicinal connections. Just as 2001 was called the summer of the shark, the summer of 2002 became the summer of the snakehead. The story of that fascinating fish captured people's imagination and took them on a wild ride. What will be the next fish story? Maybe an artic char from Stockton.

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