Snakehead Eradication Meeting Sept. 18 in Brinkley, Arkansas
September 3, 2008
BRINKLEY – The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will hold a town hall meeting and public hearing about eradicating northern snakehead fish at 7 p.m., Sept. 18, in Brinkley at the Convention Center.
Snakeheads, natives of Asia, were discovered in the Piney Creek watershed in Lee and Monroe counties last spring. An eradication effort is planned for this October.
The first part of the meeting will outline the need to protect the Piney Creek watershed from the fish, which eat sport fish and can survive in a wide variety of habitats and temperatures. Without control, snakehead fish will spread into the lower White River and eventually up the Mississippi River. The second part of the meeting will be open to public comments about the Piney Creek Environmental Assessment and the eradication project.
Several AGFC personnel and FWS biologists will be available during the meeting to answer questions. The eradication will be staged in three phases: treatment, short-term assessment with retreatment, and stocking of fish and long-term assessment.
Phase I: Treatment
Treatment will be conducted Sept. 29-Oct. 18, although that schedule may change because of weather and field conditions. Water will not be treated when Big Piney Creek flow exceeds 50 cubic feet per second at Buckhorn County Road Bridge.
Treatment will consist of aerial and ground application of up to 24,000 pounds of powdered rotenone and 3,000 gallons of liquid rotenone to Big Piney Creek, Little Piney Creek, tributaries, and ditches. The estimated treatment coverage is up to 4,000 acres; the area treated will depend on the amount of water present in Piney Creek.
Rotenone is a chemical commonly used to control nuisance species in fish management and has low toxicity on other wildlife.
Aerial application will consist of liquid rotenone in ditches, tributaries ponds, and lakes without tree canopies. FWS helicopter crews will conduct aerial treatment with pilots certified for rotenone application by the Arkansas State Plant Board.
The FWS has prepared an Environmental Assessment to evaluate the potential impact of providing resources to assist AGFC in its efforts. The FWS will provide about $150,000 of in-kind assistance to help the AGFC restore native fish in the Piney Creek watershed. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the FWS is requesting public comments on the proposed federal action. The 30-day comment period begins on Aug. 22 and ends on Sept. 22. At the end of the comment period, the FWS will determine the extent of the federal action’s impact.
Phase II: Short-term Assessment and Retreatment
Phase II will rapidly assess the success of the treatment on northern snakeheads. Retreatment will be conducted in areas where incomplete kills are suspected. This phase will begin immediately after the treatment phase and should conclude by Nov. 1.
Assessment crews will determine the success of the kill by sampling fish and looking for snakeheads. Areas with live fish may be retreated with liquid or powdered rotenone.
Phase III: Stocking and Long-term Assessment
Big Piney and Little Piney creeks will be stocked with largemouth bass, bluegill, and channel catfish. Largemouth bass and bluegill will be young-of-year, at least 3 inches long. Channel catfish will be a combination of yearlings (7-8 inches) and adults (10 inches and longer). Stocking may begin immediately following Phase II in early November and proceed through summer 2009. Stocking locations will be determined by availability of access, but attempts will be made to stock fish throughout the treatment area.
During the long-term assessment phase, the Big Piney Creek drainage will be monitored for northern snakeheads and the colonization of the treatment area by fish and other aquatic life. Long-term monitoring will begin in 2009 and continue until it’s no longer necessary. The AGFC will work with local landowners to secure access permission and not interfere with farming operations.
The Environmental Assessment is available at http://www.fws.gov/arkansas%2Des/
. Copies may be requested by calling (501) 513-4470; by fax, (501) 513-4480; by e-mail, Mark_Sattelberg [at] fws [dot] gov, or by mail, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecological Services Field Office, 110 S. Amity Road, Conway 72032.
For more information about the meeting, call Keith Stephens at (501) 223-6342 or Mark Sattelberg at the FWS Conway Field Office, (501) 513-4470.
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Anglers Can Help Keep Slithery Menace Out of Missouri
August 5, 2008
The toothy Asian snakehead has turned up in Arkansas and could invade Show-Me State waters.
JEFFERSON CITY-Some ecological threats are subtle, hardly drawing any notice except in scientific circles. Then there is the northern snakehead, an exotic invader so obviously evil it is difficult not to recoil in horror. At least that is what Missouri officials hope.
The Northern snakehead (Channa argus) is native to northern China and Korea. Individuals arrived in North America as aquarium fish, but escaped or were released into the wild. The first known wild populations were discovered in Maryland lakes in 2002. Some live snakeheads were sold by a supermarket in Los Angeles in 2002 and 2003. The fish turned up in a tributary of the Potomac River in Maryland in 2004. Since then they have been found in places as far apart as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida.
On April 14 this year, a farmer discovered a northern snakehead wallowing on the banks of a drainage ditch in Lee County, Ark. He reported the sighting to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, which confirmed that a breeding population of the fish existed in nearby Piney Creek. Arkansas officials quickly applied rotenone, a chemical that suffocates fish, and recovered about 100 dead snakeheads and half as many live specimens measuring up to 20 inches. However, they said it was likely that floodwaters already had allowed the fish to spread to other streams in the White River Basin. The headwaters of the White River extend into southwestern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas.
Arkansas officials said that once the northern snakehead reaches the White River it will have free access to the Arkansas, St. Francis and Mississippi river systems as well.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added snakeheads to its list of banned species in 2002. A fish farm in Monroe, Ark., raised northern snakeheads in 2000. Arkansas officials speculate that some of those fish might have escaped destruction. Escapes are particularly possible for snakeheads, which can breath air and may travel some distance overland as long as they remain moist.
The northern snakehead’s habitat needs and food habits are similar to those of the largemouth bass, leading fisheries biologists to worry about how the invader could affect native populations of fish and other animals. The northern snakehead can reach 5 feet in length and weigh up to 13 pounds and is a prolific breeder.
The northern snakehead is similar in size and appearance to the bowfin (Amia calva) a fish native to southeastern Missouri and the Mississippi River. The most certain way to tell a snakehead from a bowfin is by the length of the anal fin, which is on the belly just in front of the tail. Snakeheads’ anal fins are long, like the fins that run down their backs. Bowfins’ anal fins are much shorter in their attachment to the belly.
Snakeheads also have diamond-shaped markings on their flanks, compared to the uniform olive green of bowfins. Bowfins have a large, dark spot near the top of the tail where it meets the body.
Anglers who catch suspicious fish and anyone who sees a fish resembling the northern snakehead are asked to contact the nearest Conservation Department office immediately. Anglers should not release suspected snakeheads, but kill and keep them until a fisheries biologist can determine their identity.
The snakehead is just one of dozens of non-native aquatic pests that could cause ecological damage in Missouri. Others include the zebra mussel, the rusty crayfish, several species of Asian carp, didymo (an invasive algae) and numerous aquatic plants.
One of the best things anglers can do to prevent snakeheads and other exotic animals from entering Missouri is to dispose of live bait properly. Unused bait should be placed in trash bags and deposited in trash receptacles away from water. Never release unused bait - whether fish, worms, crayfish or anything else - into lakes or streams.
The northern snakehead is a prohibited species under the Wildlife Code of Missouri, making possession of live snakeheads illegal.
For more information about the northern snakehead, visit invasivespeciesinfo.gov/aquatics/snakehead.shtml. For more about other invasive aquatic species, visit invasivespeciesinfo.gov/aquatics/main.shtml.
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