First Snakeheads Confirmed in Georgia

[MCS]

https://georgiawildlife.com/invasive-snakehead-fish-caught-gwinnett-county?utm_campaign=&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=

 

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division recently confirmed the presence of the non-native northern snakehead fish (Channa argus) in Gwinnett County.  This is the first documented occurrence of snakeheads in the wild in Georgia. 

[Choporoz]

Funny....every state seems to go straight to "Fishermen, kill it immediately".....then backing off that after a few years.....  psst, Georgia....that's not gonna slow them down

[Junger]

4 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Funny....every state seems to go straight to "Fishermen, kill it immediately".....then backing off that after a few years.....  psst, Georgia....that's not gonna slow them down

It's also funny how some fisherman catch them and say they should be killed and eradicated, then when someone asks where they caught it, it's radio silence.

[fishwizzard]

The crazy thing to me is that the pond that was ground-zero for the MD population is next to the Pax River, but they are not super common there, while the Potomac seems like the population center.  

 

The pond, referred to as “Walking Fish Pond” is still there but there is a huge development going in next to it and I fear access is going to disappear soon. 

[Logan S]

Killing them immediately when they are first discovered might actually have a chance at preventing them from becoming established...Small chance, but a chance nonetheless.  They absolutely should be killed when found in new waters.  In waters where they've been established, killing them isn't going to do anything to control them.  

 

1 hour ago, fishwizzard said:

The crazy thing to me is that the pond that was ground-zero for the MD population is next to the Pax River, but they are not super common there, while the Potomac seems like the population center.  

 

The pond, referred to as “Walking Fish Pond” is still there but there is a huge development going in next to it and I fear access is going to disappear soon. 

That pond was drained and poisoned way back then to eradicate them...Might be why.  They had already made it to the Potomac by then though.  

 

For whatever reason, illegally stocking snakeheads seems to be a pretty popular thing to do over the past few years.  I really wish MD and VA DNR's (as the two agencies at the epicenter) would make some kind of effort to bust some of these people, seeing that might make some of them knock it off.   

[Fried Lemons]

Not surprising. They somehow spread from one little pond to almost every major water body in MD. What I wonder is how much of it was intentional stocking.

 

At this rate within 10 years they will have colonized most if not all of the eastern seaboard. 

[Logan S]

59 minutes ago, Fried Lemons said:

Not surprising. They somehow spread from one little pond to almost every major water body in MD. What I wonder is how much of it was intentional stocking.

 

At this rate within 10 years they will have colonized most if not all of the eastern seaboard. 

They might have walked from that original pond to somewhere where they made it to the Potomac...But they didn't walk down I-95 to Lake Anna (just the latest example). People are moving them around, no doubt about it.

[fishwizzard]

3 hours ago, Logan S said:

 

That pond was drained and poisoned way back then to eradicate them...Might be why.  They had already made it to the Potomac by then though.  

 

For whatever reason, illegally stocking snakeheads seems to be a pretty popular thing to do over the past few years.  I really wish MD and VA DNR's (as the two agencies at the epicenter) would make some kind of effort to bust some of these people, seeing that might make some of them knock it off.   

The pond is maybe 50-75 yards from the Pax and there is a beaver drag that turns into a little stream when it floods, so it’s easy to see how they escaped.  What I don’t get is why the tidal Pax isn’t full of them, like the area by Waysons Corner is perfect habitat. 

 

MD DNR seems to lack the resources to stop people from poaching stripers right off of public piers, so I assume there is little budget to do anything about bucket-stocking.  

 

Oddly enough my friend called DNR last week when he saw some guys carrying a full bucket of “something” down to the water at Brown’s Bridge. They said they would send someone but he waited for like 30min and an officer never showed up.  So maybe we will have them in Rocky Gouge in the next few years. 

[Theanglee]

I think the truth has not supported the silly media hype.  I’ve never heard anyone explain how snakeheads are more destructive than bowfin or gar.  This is not Hawaii, where there are (were) no native predators.   After all these years, I think one would be hard pressed to find scientific evidence that the snakeheads have been a disaster in the Potomac.  

[MCS]

Well, being from MD I know crofton and the patuxent well along with all what is stated. Living in Flordia for a number of years I can fill you in, the snakeheads in Fl are the bullseye, but I am sure they spawn the same, they have a big ball of a good number of fry they guard, they are small and can go through storm drains, small streams etc.......As far as florida is concerned, they don't really do any different or kill everything like they are said to.....Bass, gars and bowfin eat baby snakeheads as do birds and turtles. Gators eat bigger ones....But these are northerns here in ga same as MD, I think yeah they aren't good and hope they don't get prevelant here in GA. I am not sure there would be enough other animals to eat them. I also think they are more in the Potomac because it is a dirtier and slower water body. As far as they go in FL they are more in the canals and ponds in dirty slack water. I never really hear anyone landing them in the glades or O. You will though see folks catch more bowfin, oscars, myans and jaguars in the glades.... 

[TnRiver46]

14 hours ago, Theanglee said:

I think the truth has not supported the silly media hype.  I’ve never heard anyone explain how snakeheads are more destructive than bowfin or gar.  This is not Hawaii, where there are (were) no native predators.   After all these years, I think one would be hard pressed to find scientific evidence that the snakeheads have been a disaster in the Potomac.  Here’s a guy who takes a detailed look at it, interviewed a Maryland DNR scientist.
 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lceYaOj8P9M

Almost every exotic species is all hype and doesnt do near the damage that people fear. So far the european white man is the most destructive exotic species i know of. 

[Bluebasser86]

Asian carp are a way bigger threat than snakehead. The hype for them is so overdone. They've been in Maryland for how long now? Over 2 decades or something like that and they haven't eaten every living creature in any body of water yet? 

[Upper_bay_outdoors]

On 10/10/2019 at 12:07 PM, MCS said:

Well, being from MD I know crofton and the patuxent well along with all what is stated. Living in Flordia for a number of years I can fill you in, the snakeheads in Fl are the bullseye, but I am sure they spawn the same, they have a big ball of a good number of fry they guard, they are small and can go through storm drains, small streams etc.......As far as florida is concerned, they don't really do any different or kill everything like they are said to.....Bass, gars and bowfin eat baby snakeheads as do birds and turtles. Gators eat bigger ones....But these are northerns here in ga same as MD, I think yeah they aren't good and hope they don't get prevelant here in GA. I am not sure there would be enough other animals to eat them. I also think they are more in the Potomac because it is a dirtier and slower water body. As far as they go in FL they are more in the canals and ponds in dirty slack water. I never really hear anyone landing them in the glades or O. You will though see folks catch more bowfin, oscars, myans and jaguars in the glades.... 

Snakeheads are a huge issue in Maryland because they don't have natural predators. I have seen bass attack their fry and birds that will pull them out of the water but those have been the only signs I have seen of natural predators. This allows them to spread rapidly without any control of the population. The only reason they have seemed to slow down is because of increased fishing pressure. I completely agree that the Northern Snakehead is an issue but it seems the only way to truly manage the population is by exploiting the fishery with recreational anglers.

[CountryboyinDC]

I'm a relative newcomer to the Potomac estuary, and so I have little firsthand knowledge of what the river was like before snakeheads.  But I admit that I carry a folding entrenching tool to cut any snakeheads I catch in half if no one is with me that will eat them.  For me, it reminds me of so many things I've witnessed introduced, starting with kudzu in the southeastern US.  It didn't kill every Virginia pine, but it sure wasn't the help that it was promised.  Since then, there have been other things introduced, plant, fish, and beast with various effects.  It's a larger discussion about introducing non-native (however you define that), and one I don't want to go into here, but I wash my kayak hull and paddle everytime I fish the tidal potomac to make sure I'm not the introducer of snakeheads to the Shenandoah or elsewhere.

[Bass Junke]

On 10/10/2019 at 12:56 PM, TnRiver46 said:

Almost every exotic species is all hype and doesnt do near the damage that people fear. So far the european white man is the most destructive exotic species i know of. 

You forgot invasive.