Confidence Grows That Wheaton Lake Is 'Snakehead-Free'

The search for a northern snakehead turned up about 3,000 fish in a Wheaton lake -- including an African tilapia -- but no signs of a mate for the predatory fish that an angler pulled from the pond a week ago.

With no evidence of more snakeheads or their eggs in Pine Lake, officials were "as close as we can be to sure that it's snakehead-free," said Doug Redmond of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which oversees the small lake at Wheaton Regional Park.

The northern snakehead, native to China and Korea, is a voracious predator capable of clearing out a pond of native fish. Worse yet, it can breathe air and slither short distances over land to reach other feeding areas.

The fish holds a special terror for Maryland officials because of its appearance in a Crofton pond in 2002. In that case, the catch of a single snakehead led to a more distressing discovery: The pond was home to a mating pair of fish, which had produced thousands of babies.

The more recent case began when Terry Wintermoyer, fishing for bass, hooked a 19-inch snakehead with an artificial lure. The ferocious fish lived up to its reputation, remaining alive for hours out of the water and lunging at the steel-toed boot of a man who stepped too close to it.

State officials decided to drain the five-acre lake, whose water flows into the Northwest Branch and on to the Anacostia and Potomac rivers. That process began Thursday, as workers used a boat that puts off electric current to stun and remove the lake's fish.

By Sunday, officials could see much of the eight-foot-deep lake's muddy bottom. Redmond said he was surprised at how little debris there was in the roughly 40-year-old lake.

"There weren't bicycles. There weren't washing machines," Redmond said. "When we got down to the bottom, it was mud and stumps."

Redmond said the pumps filtered out very small things into large bags. He said that he had not yet checked the bags for evidence of snakehead eggs or baby fish but that he believed it was unlikely there would be any because there was no evidence that the female snakehead had a mate.

There were several species common to ponds in the region, such as largemouth bass and sunfish. But there also were several fish that, like the snakehead, were aliens in these waters.

Among the carp were several specimens weighing about 30 pounds, the largest fish in the lake, and koi, the large goldfish familiar from ornamental ponds.

Officials said they caught a single tilapia -- a native of Africa that is popular here as a food fish.

How did this fish get to a park in Wheaton?

"It would have gotten there the same way the snakehead got there" -- someone likely released the fish into the pond, said Steve Early of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Officials said some of the native fish were taken to a hatchery and will be returned to the lake after it is refilled by a small stream. They are looking for homes for the carp and koi in other area parks. It was unclear what happened to the tilapia, which scientists said posed little ecological threat.

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) has said he will ban the possession of snakeheads in the county. Maryland officials are drafting regulations to ban the sale or possession of the fish statewide.

It is already illegal to place such a fish into state waters. Early said that people who want to get rid of a fish they have kept as a pet should kill it by freezing it or contact a pet store for instructions on disposing of it.