Snakehead Numbers "Going Through The Roof" In Potomac Basin - Baltimore Sun

[hatrack]

EDIT

The one thing he does know is that their numbers "are going through the roof" because the fish are in a spawning mode for six months. Anglers have turned in 20 fish, but calls "are coming in so fast, I haven't had time to update my database. With less media exposure, I think you can figure there's more being caught than we know about. They're the rabbits of the water."

"Snakehead Alley" is the nickname given by recreational anglers and biologists to two canals off Little Hunting Creek just upstream from Mount Vernon. "You see them all over the place," says Steve Chaconas, a popular fishing guide who offers a "Bass and Snakeheads" package on the Web site www.snakehead pro.com. But truth is while customers ask about snakeheads and would love to catch one, they are mostly interested in largemouth bass.

"I'm trying to learn how to catch them, but I don't think you can. I think you just have to fish where they are," he says. "I'm worried about what happens if they spread. We can't drain the Potomac or fill it with poisons. I think you'll see areas of the Potomac dominated by them and squeezing out the other fish. Then you'll start to see a fight on the buffet line."

What happens when the habitat no longer supports the snakehead population is of interest to Walter Courtenay Jr. of the U.S. Geological Survey, who picked up the nickname "Dr. Snakehead" during the frenzy five years ago. Since the Crofton incident, northern snakeheads have been found in a number of places in the Northeast, from Flushing Meadows, not far from Shea Stadium, the home of the New York Mets, to two ponds outside Philadelphia, Courtenay says.

EDIT

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/bal-sp.md.snakehead14may14,0,1085738.story?page=2&coll=bal-home-headlines

[TreasonousBastard]

Fry 'em up! Unlike many pestilent imported species...

these seem to be quite edible and maybe even tasty. Two billion Chinamen can't be wrong, eh?

So, with a little marketing, perhaps we can eliminate these the same way we're eliminating cod, tuna, and anything else in the water that finds its way to the dinner table.

[soothsayer]

3. yuck, don't eat fish out of the filthy potomac

[LiberalEsto]

1. Those Repugs are spawning again!

The Capitol and White House are really close to the Potomac River

[Captain Hilts]

2. Even Shea Stadium isn't safe from them! Mookie is VERY upset! nt

[depakid]

4. These are real beauties....

[kestrel91316]

5. If we make them the next hip-trendy food fish, like swordfish and Chilean

sea bass, we can probably fix the Chesapeake problem in short order.

Overfishing something to the brink of extinction is easy for humans, especially if profit enters into the deal.

[bananas]

6. turn them into cat food. nt

[kestrel91316]

9. Fish is inappropriate for cats - saith kestrel the cat vet......

[depakid]

7. "...there are gustatory possibilities."

Pet store owners say the snakefish is not popular in the aquarium trade and appears unlikely to have been flushed down the toilet by a parent up to here with the weight of fish maintenance.

More likely, says Surrick, is a scenario that traces the Crofton snakefish to some Asian-oriented fish market, where snakeheads are often sold live. Since they can survive as long as four days out of water, they're much valued by cooks who prize freshness.

Now that snakeheads are on the march, however, it's obviously incumbent on all of us to eat the enemy.

Dee Buizer, owner-chef of Sweet Basil restaurant in Bethesda, has encountered snakeheads in her native Thailand and says two recipes spring immediately to mind.

One is from China, where the fish are stocked in the rice paddies of Guangdong to help keep pests down, and are usually cooked whole for 30 minutes in a bamboo steamer with soy sauce, scallions, onions, shiitake mushrooms and garlic.

But Buizer prefers to fork the flesh off after steaming, and make it into a light patty like a crab cake, deep-fry it to make it crunchy, then top it with a sauce made from green mangoes, lime juice, fish sauce and chilies.

She promises the mango treatment for any snakefish that walks into her restaurant.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16439-2002Jul2.html

[AlecBGreen]

8. my (Chinese-American) wife cooks this

"usually cooked whole for 30 minutes in a bamboo steamer with soy sauce, scallions, onions, shiitake mushrooms and garlic."

DE-LICIOUS! ... but this sounds even better

"make it into a light patty like a crab cake, deep-fry it to make it crunchy, then top it with a sauce made from green mangoes, lime juice, fish sauce and chilies."

:drool: