SON OF FRANKENFISH :

Maryland Suffers Setback in War on Invasive Walking Fish (Hillary Mayell, July 12, 2002, National Geographic News)

The news keeps getting worse for Maryland wildlife officials. Biologists sampling the lake captured more than 100 juvenile northern snakeheads, confirming their worst fears: The air-breathing, land-crawling, voracious predator found in a pond in Crofton, Maryland, is multiplying.

Finding that many doesn't provide scientists with enough information to estimate the overall number of northern snakeheads now living in the pond.

"You only expect to get a small percentage of the fish when you're sampling," said Steve Early, Maryland's freshwater fisheries manager, who conducted the survey. "But I'm worried if I have 100 or if I have 1,000 in the pond; I've still got too many."

Finding the juveniles means the northern snakehead is now an established population in the Crofton pond, said Walter Courtenay, professor emeritus of zoology at Florida Atlantic University. "All it takes is the ability to successfully reproduce to be defined as an established population," he said.

How long until PETA shows up and demands that these things be protected? Posted by Orrin Judd at July 13, 2002 8:35 AM