Reeling in the Snakehead

SOME OUTSIDE of the recently deposed Kansas school board might suspect it's the missing link. Most just think it's a tasty pest. The snakehead, a fish that can stay upright and wriggle its way around for short distances on land, has infested the Potomac River.

The House directed $660,000 to managing the area's snakehead population in its report on the Interior Department's fiscal 2007 budget. The Senate should do the same before it votes on the bill.

Ever since the species was detected in the area in 2004, local scientists have fretted over the fish, a native of Southeast Asia. If the snakehead population gets large enough, experts warn, it could harm the Potomac by, for example, competing with the river's prized largemouth bass, which have similar feeding requirements but suffer from a shorter breeding season than the snakehead.

Scientists also worry that the fish could spread beyond the Potomac and do worse damage elsewhere. According to an official at the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, the snakehead is a "really good eating fish." That means anglers fond of its taste might try to introduce it outside the area. And there's a danger that when the region gets heavy rains as it did in June, the salinity of water at the mouth of the Potomac might become low enough for snakeheads to swim to other river systems flowing into the Chesapeake Bay.

Snakeheads continue to multiply. The most dramatic evidence of this came last year, when heavy rains caused hundreds of the fish to swarm into Virginia's Dogue Creek. John Odenkirk, a biologist at the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, caught 62 in two hours while local anglers netted dozens to claim rewards for catching the alien fish. Federal and state scientists say that it's impossible to eradicate the Potomac's snakehead. The best they can do is try to control it and prevent its introduction into other river systems in North America.

Enter Congress, which has already asked for a proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on how to manage the snakehead infestation. The new money the House set aside in its report for Interior's 2007 budget would pay to implement the agency's recommendations, which are likely to focus on how to prevent the spread of the snakehead. Now it's the Senate's turn to approve the funding.

In the meantime, local sport fishermen should frequent snakehead habitats such as Dogue Creek to catch some good eats and thin the Potomac's stock. Here's a tip: They like shallow water and shade.