What do you do when an invasive species threatens a sensitive habitat? Since about 2004, Northern Snakeheads (Channa argus), a predatory Asian fish that threatens native fish populations, have been spotted on the Potomac River. They have now become established in many locations in Northern Virginia, including Huntley Meadows Park, the marshland park where I take many of my wildlife photos.
Throughout this summer, many of us have cheered when ospreys and Great Blue Herons have pulled snakeheads out of the waters, but I suspected that the birds couldn’t control the snakehead population on their own. We have not had much rainfall the last couple of months and most of the remaining water is concentrated in a series of scattered pools of muddy water.
This past Friday, I was privileged to watch a dedicated group of employees from Fairfax County enter those pools of water to remove as many snakeheads as possible. How did they do it? I don’t know the details of the equipment, but essentially two guys walked through the water delivering jolts of electricity from the “juice boxes” on their backs and other members of the group captured the stunned fish with handheld nets and deposited them into five-gallon buckets.
It may sound easy, but in practice it looked really challenging. The pools were slippery and of uncertain depth, so everyone had to move cautiously and slowly, undoubtedly conscious all of the time of the electricity. I don’t know about you, but I am just not really comfortable even thinking about mixing water and electricity.
In total, the group managed to capture about two dozen snakeheads, including several that looked to be about two feet long (61 cm). Unfortunately, the snakeheads are here to stay and I expect that efforts will have to be made every year to reduce and control the population of these fierce predators.
I was granted permission to take photos of the fishing process with the stipulation that I not interfere with the work. It was quite a challenge to try to capture action shots and avoid getting stuck in the mud. I am including an assortment of images to give you a feel of the action and the people involved in the effort,
My good friend and fellow photographer Walter Sanford also captured the action and did a blog posting today called Electrofishing for Northern Snakeheads. Walter included lots of wonderful details about snakeheads in our local area and links to related articles to accompany his images. He and I have different backgrounds and use different camera gear and periodically we like to do companion postings to provide viewers with different perspectives on the same subjects. Be sure to check out his posting.
Initially the group was all together, but it eventually split up into subgroups.
A drop in the bucket after netting a fish.
When the catch was bigger, it was safer to bring it to shore.
Net gain
Teamwork
Intensity
Electrifying performance
Can you figure out why it’s called a “snakehead?”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
A fascinating post, Mike. I would definitely agree with you – worrisome-sounding combination of electricity and people standing in the water. But it looks and sounds like quite a well-organized process. I’ll check out Walter’s post, too – thanks.
[…] Editor’s Note: Mike Powell and I were fortunate to be in the right place when the electrofishing team arrived at the central wetland area; with permission from Dave Lawlor, we enjoyed the extraordinary opportunity to photograph this interesting event. See Mike’s excellent blog post: Snakeheads at Huntley Meadows Park. […]
Good action shots, Mike!
That’s a job I wouldn’t want, but hooray for them!
Invasive species, whether they be plants, animals, or fish are tough to manage. It’s so easy for the ecosystem to be overwhelmed and it seems like aggressive action and constant vigilance is the only hope of controlling the invaders.
They’re doing important work. We have a lot of exotics where I live, especially eucalyptus and pampas grass.
Are they sure that they kill only snakehead fish without killed or harmed other fishes with their electric net?
I think the electricity stuns the fish and they are actually killed later after they have been netted and pulled out of the water. I am not sure, though, that it is a foolproof system and it is possible that some other fish are harmed in the process.