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Sorry to say this bad news could lead to another serious potential Great
Lakes problem. The snakeheads are 'not' an answer to Mississippi River
Asian carp control, just a compound problem of exotics.
The northern snakehead, an aggressive fish native to Asia, has been found
in Lee County and could colonize the lower White River basin.
“This is some of the worst news we could get as fisheries biologists,” said
Mark Oliver, assistant chief of fisheries for the Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission. “We can see looking in their stomachs that they’ll eat everything
that’s out there. They’re eating crayfish and bream, and they’ll kill fish just
because of the competition factor. From the White River, they have access to
much of the state.” Lee Holt, district fisheries biologist for the AGFC in
Brinkley, confirmed a breeding population of northern snakeheads April 28 in a
drainage ditch in Lee County. Oliver said a farmer found the first one about a
week ago on the ground near a drainage ditch. Since then, he said AGFC personnel
also found adult snakeheads, including three that measured 20 inches, 17 inches
and 14 inches long, respectively.
“Unfortunately, all these creeks are way out of their normal borders,”
Oliver said. “Once they’re out in the streams, there’s no way to do anything
about them. The water’s too cool to rotenone them, and there’s too many places
for us to miss them.”
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