Snakehead Eradication in Arkansas

Project To Kill "Frankenfish" Underway in Arkansas

Scott Noll

7:28 PM CDT, March 20, 2009

FAST FACTS:

* Snakehead fish, which can "walk" on land found in Arkansas
* Eradication project underway in Lee and Monroe Counties
* Cost of project expected to be three-quarters of a million bucks

(Brinkley, AR 3/20/2009) It's nicknamed the frankenfish, and it's showing up
in creeks here in the Mid South.

The northern snakehead, has earned a reputation worldwide as a "pit bull
with fins".

So should we really be worried?

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission says yes.

It's spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to try and kill the predator.

Sings posted along the Piney Creek warn people of the snakefish eradication
program.

All along the creek, crews are using chemicals they say will kill every fish
in the water, in hopes of wiping out the snakehead.

From its razor-sharp teeth to its ability to slither on dry land, experts
worry the northern snakehead could change the face of waters along the
Mississippi River for generations.

"This is one chance to put pandora back in her box," explained Mike
Armstrong, Chief of Fisheries for the Game and Fish Commission.

Experts suspect the fish got into the Piney Creek watershed, after escaping
from a Lee County fish farm in 2001, before it was illegal to keep
snakeheads in the US.

The fear now, if it's not stopped, this predator will spread up and down the
Mississippi, preying on other sportfish...and overrunning native species.

"Once it becomes established it's there until something changes, that it
goes to extinction," said Armstrong.

For the next nine days, workers will be treating 39 miles of the creek with
the chemical rotenone.

It's expected to kill all the fish in the water, in hopes of wiping out the
snakehead.

The project's pricetag is $750,000.

"That's a good barometer of how serious we're taking this particular
problem," reasoned Armstrong.

But is it worth it?

To date, Armstrong, the project leader, says they've only found about 150
snakeheads in the area.

In Virginia, they've been dealing with the "frankenfish" since 2004.

John Odenkirk, Fisheries Biologist with the Virginia Department of Game
Inland Fisheries says once snakeheads show up, they're there for good.

"Even if we tried to mobilize and do everything know to science and
fisheries to remove these things, we wouldn't come close," said Odenkirk.

In arkansas, Armstrong admit, they're not sure the eradication will work, or
what the full impact the snakesheads would have on the Mid South's fish
population.

What project leaders insist, is they can't afford not to do something.

"What we may be doing is simply containing and buying time if we are not
successful," admitted Armstrong.

The state expects to know this summer whether or not the eradication was
successful.

The Commission is planning to return to Piney Creek later this year to
restock the waters and replace the gamefish killed off by the project. says
they should know whether or not they were successful later this summer.