Tag Archives: Snakeheads
Maryland Catfish Trail hopes to control invasive species
It’s early afternoon on a comfortable Sunday when Keith Bradfield and his brother Ray pull up to the Smallwood State Park dock after a long day of fishing. And they’ve been successful. Very successful. The Fairfax, Va., resident pulls up the lid of the cooler to reveal it stuffed with invasive blue catfish up to about 30 pounds each. Bradfield, who shows an image of his sonar lit up like a Christmas tree signifying the invasive species, said he looks for the fish in the deepest holes of the river, “but they’re pretty much everywhere.” And the blue catfish’s population has become such a problem that the state recently initiated a Maryland Catfish Trail where anglers can target fellow invasive flathead catfish and snakeheads in an attempt to help lower their numbers. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:39
Inviasve fish, Part 2 — the managing
Addressing invasive species issues requires dealing with two groups resistant to management — fish and people, so sound, scientific principles must be applied but psychology and human relations principles may be even more important. This column attempts to summarize hundreds of pages of articles and studies on blue catfish, flathead catfish and northern snakeheads. To repeat from Part 1, they are considered invasive to the greater Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries since they are “non-native species that cause harm to the economy, to the environment or human health” or “reproduce and expand beyond their initial areas of introduction.” click here to read the story 15:41
