Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Invasive Asian Fish Detected in New Regions of Chesapeake Bay

A team of researchers and student summer interns discovered a Northern Snakehead (Channa argus) fish in the Rhode River Thursday afternoon. This is the first report of the fish in this area, and may indicate a recent range expansion of the snakehead population.

Native to China, the first Northern Snakehead in Maryland was reported in 2002 in a Crofton pond, approximately 20 miles east of Washington, D.C. That population was eradicated, but a separate introduction occurred in the Potomac River in 2004, which led to the establishment of the Northern Snakehead in creeks and upper waterways of the Potomac in Maryland and Virginia.

The Northern Snakehead is typically found in freshwater, although it can tolerate low-salinity waters. It was thought that higher salinity at the mouth of the Potomac may act as a natural barrier, serving to limit or reduce the fish’s spread to other tributaries. Due to extremely high levels of spring runoff in Upper Chesapeake Bay this year, salinities in Chesapeake tributaries are at some of their lowest levels in the last 30 years. This has potentially allowed the fish to move out of the Potomac and travel to other rivers via Chesapeake Bay.

Unlike most fish, the Northern Snakehead can survive up to four days out of water if kept moist. This ability comes from air chambers above their gills that act as a primitive lung. They are top-level predators with the ability to consume other fish and animals up to one-third of their own body size. Northern Snakeheads may cause declines in local fish and other organisms, causing potential changes to the food web.

Research scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) study long-term changes in coastal and terrestrial ecosystems, including monitoring the status and trends of shallow water fish and invertebrate populations on the Rhode River, a tributary in Middle Chesapeake Bay. A single Northern Snakehead was caught during routine sampling of a long-term study site using a seine net, representing the only specimen recorded for the Rhode River site in decades of such surveys. This fish was a mature female, 58 cm (23 inches) in length, caught near the headwaters of the Rhode River.

The fish was caught by a research team from SERC’s Marine Invasions Research Lab, which studies patterns and effects of biological invasions in coastal marine ecosystems throughout North America. The research team included three summer undergraduate interns working with the Invasions Lab under SERC’s Internship Program; these interns are an integral part of SERC programs and surveys. Research team members were research biologists Eric Bah and Stacey Havard, interns Philip Choy and Diana Sisson and visiting student Alison Everett.  Information on this and other non-native species in Chesapeake Bay can be found at SERC’s NEMESIS database.

Any movement or possession of a live Northern Snakehead fish is a violation of state law. If you catch a Northern Snakehead, please do not release it. Anglers are asked to kill the fish and contact Maryland or Virginia Departments of Natural Resources.

Maryland
Call the Maryland Department of Natural Resources at 410-260-8320, or toll-free at 1-877-520-8DNR, ext. 8230.

Virginia
Call the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in state, toll-free at 1-800-770-4951. Out-of-state callers reporting snakehead fish caught in Virginia waters should call directly to 804-367-1258.

To view a fact sheet with a photograph of a Northern Snakehead fish and illustrations of similar-looking native species, anglers are encouraged to visit the following websites:
Maryland Department of Natural Resources www.dnr.maryland.gov/dnrnews/infocus/snakehead.asp
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/snakehead-id.asp
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service http://contaminants.fws.gov