McAdenville angler Gary Upton caught this 31-inch northern snakehead from Lake Wylie on April 19.
MEDIA: A hi-res version of the image may be downloaded here. Please credit the N. C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
RALEIGH, N.C. (April 22, 2009) – An angler fishing the Paw Creek arm of Lake Wylie in Mecklenburg County caught a 31-inch northern snakehead on April 19.
Gary Upton, of McAdenville, took the fish, which weighed 12 pounds, 11 ounces, to a N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission fisheries biologist who initially identified the fish as a northern snakehead. The biologist then sent the fish to Dr. Wayne Starnes, curator of fishes at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. Starnes confirmed the identification of the fish as a northern snakehead yesterday.
Commission biologists are currently sampling Lake Wylie for additional adult snakehead and any evidence of reproduction. Lake Wylie is located on the border of North and South Carolina.
Biologists will continue to assess the 13,443-acre lake over the next few weeks in conjunction with staff from Duke Energy and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources to identify the extent of the snakehead infestation. Based on their findings, management strategies will be developed to control northern snakehead.
The capture of a northern snakehead is potentially bad news for the Lake Wylie fishery, as well as Lake Wylie anglers. Northern snakehead, which are native to eastern Asia, can cause undesirable impacts on native fishes in waters where they have been illegally introduced by competing for food and habitat, and through direct predation. An established snakehead population could reduce the abundance of popular native game fishes, such as largemouth bass and crappie, by direct predation or indirectly by feeding on their prey base, and, thereby, affecting angler catch rates.
Because of the potential negative impacts of snakehead on existing fisheries, the Wildlife Commission passed a regulation in 2004 making it illegal to transport, purchase, possess or sell live snakeheads in North Carolina.
“We commend Mr. Upton for having the presence of mind to realize he might have caught a northern snakehead and for keeping the fish for identification by a Commission biologist,” said Doug Besler, a fisheries supervisor with the Commission. “Too many anglers wouldn’t realize that the fish was a snakehead and would have released it back into the lake.
“Because of the similarity between snakehead and bowfin, a species native to North Carolina, we need the fish in hand to confirm identification.”
In May 2007, an angler unwittingly caught — and released — a northern snakehead back into Lake Wylie. He mistook it for a bowfin, but did photograph the fish, which served as the basis for its subsequent identification. While confusing a bowfin and a snakehead is easy to do, distinguishing between the two species can be straightforward.
“The best way to distinguish between a bowfin and a snakehead is to look at the anal fin, which is the bottom-rear fin near the tail,” Besler said. “The snakehead has a very long anal fin that is more than half the length of the dorsal (back) fin. The bowfin has a shorter anal fin that is less than half the length of the dorsal fin.”
To help more anglers correctly identify northern snakehead and to encourage them to report any snakehead captures, Commission biologists are posting flyers that illustrate the difference between a bowfin and a northern snakehead at locations around Lake Wylie. A printer-friendly version of the flyer is posted here.
Additional information on snakeheads can be found at the United States Geological Survey’s Web site, http://fisc.er.usgs.gov/Snakehead_circ_1251/html/flyer.html.