Tuesday, Feb. 02, 2010

Northern Snakehead

It sounds like the plot of a horror movie — or a very stressful nature special. The northern snakehead fish has teeth like a shark and the ability to walk on land. The carnivorous fish hails from Asia but in 2002 it appeared in a small Maryland town, where it promptly obliterated wildlife in the local pond. While other invasive fish species can only travel as far as the waterways will take them, the snakehead, sometimes called "Fishzilla," can survive for up to four days out of the water and travels across land by wiggling its body back and forth like a snake. The fish has since been spotted everywhere from New York to California.

So how did it get to Maryland in the first place? A local resident ordered two snakeheads from a fish market in New York City's Chinatown neighborhood and then released them.