The very idea that any law-biding citizen should be imprisoned because the cannibalistic serial murder Jeffrey Dahmer used his freedom to commit his crimes is offensive. So is the idea that a loyal citizen cannot own an automatic weapon to protect his United States Constitutional freedoms from the anti-Constitutional actions of an oppressive government because mob killer and boss Al Capone may have used a tommy gun to create mayhem strikes the very foundations of our nation on which our forefathers built. One only needs to look at Syria and Libya to see what it means for individuals not to own automatic weapons. Yet this is the reasoning on which Mr. Steve and Mr. Aet base their opinions. I am certain glad I am not an Amish dairyman in Pennsylvania selling unpasteurized milk to people that request it in Maryland. Those Pennsylvanian Amish dairymen are learning how oppressive the United States Food and Drug Administration is.

Should honest citizens suffer for the actions of criminals?
Every time a government or an organization wants to restrict freedom, people make the argument: It is a shame that honest citizens cannot own (fill in the blank) or do (fill in the blank) because (choose irresponsible people or criminals) abuse it to the point government is forced to ban it. It was the argument has been used against: swords, satellite dishes, automatic weapons, speech on the airways, “Saturday night” specials, alcohol, public speaking, dancing, crowds, narcotics, pythons, piranhas, voting, Snakehead fish, and almost every other subject. Some cities bar people from having a six-inch bladed knife on their person.  The fact is this is mostly nonsense. We have English sparrow, starlings and house pigeons, nutria because massive amounts of those animals were released here. The idea that two released pythons happen to find each other in South Florida and happen to have enough offspring to survive and reproduce is also nonsense. People act like there were no public zoos that were damaged releasing their animals during the hurricanes and other storms. And what about all those roadside reptile parks, you would think government would blame them since those are businesses. The reason is if government wants to limit the most freedom from the most individuals so they ban individual ownership.

To Mr. Steve
Concerning your remark to Mr. Aet, the adage that “aquarium fish abandoned in a body of water dominates that water” is basically a myth. Establishing a fish in a degraded environment is notoriously difficult much less establishing that fish into a healthy pristine environment. It took several introductions in the northeast to establish Brown Trout from Europe into the United States. Many introductions of rainbow trout to east coast and overseas failed to establish the species. Many introductions of largemouth bass have also failed.  German carp had to be introduced several times before it could be established. One failed introduction was to a pond so degraded that held only green sunfish and minnows. I believed it failed because green sunfish devoured all the carp eggs and possible baby carp. The introduction of green sunfish to Japan failed, this important because it is a pioneer species which means after a flood or when a river forms an oxbow the green sunfish is the first to occupy other pioneer species are climbing perch, mud galaxies, annual killifish, rainbow cichlids, trahiras, walking catfish and most backwater snakeheads as oppose to openwater Snakeheads like the giant Snakehead. Giant Snakeheads are not pioneers and shy away from backwaters. In Waco, Texas, old ladies would keep Poecilids like guppies, platies, and swordtails in outdoor ponds and wanted these colorful fish in the streams close to houses so they had grandchildren dump them in the streams. In New Orleans old ladies had guppies in ornamental ponds. Storms and floods would wash them into open gutters and they became established. Florida once claimed it was capital of the ornamental fish farm business and hurricanes and floods would break open ponds releasing the fish into streams. In responding to complaints, progressive governments place fines, taxes, and expensive regulations forcing some farmers out of business. Then Carter malaise hit and eliminated all but a few ornamental fish farmers leaving many unattended and deteriorating ponds, which caused more fish to be release.
The opening up the Erie Canal and its replacement, the New York State Barge Canal System, caused large number introductions. Ships collecting bilge water from overseas ports and dumping the bile water in American waters brought in many introduced species like the Lion fish now infecting Florida’s coast and the Gulf of Mexico. I do not believe it was the hurricane flooding office buildings is responsible for the establishment of Lion fish. I also don’t believe the train wreck dumping Carp into a prairie state river caused the establishment on carp there, it was more likely the work of a bureaucrat who wanted his state to have the advantages of catching carp. The fact there were snakeheads in Crofton before the Chinese gentlemen introduce his fish which is why some of the government agents were saying that he had introduce 3 or more Snakehead fish. And some of the Potomac Snakehead fish tested showed they had lived in the “wild” prior to the age of the Crofton Snakeheads. I am sure you know Smallmouth Bass, Channel catfish, Walleye, Rainbow Trout, Largemouth bass, Brown Trout, Blue Catfish, Flathead Catfish and Carp were introduced (a.k.a. non-native) to the Potomac River System.
As far as you comment about the jury is not out on invasiveness of Snakehead fish. By Executive Order 13113, invasive species definition is as follows: “Invasive species” means an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.” Under this definition Snakeheads are non-invasive if you look at over 100 years of history in Hawaii, almost 100 years in Japan, over ten years in Florida and in the Potomac River. The legendary Paul Shafland of Florida Wildlife said (paraphrase) the Bullseye Snakehead has become part of the South Florida aquatic community not competing with Largemouth Bass or Peacock Bass. Of course this was before the Bullseye Snakehead started noticeably expanding north. But the test of invasiveness is not that a species expands but whether it harms the system. Simply expanding range of an organism does not mean that the system is harmed. Those who say the jury is out on whether the Snakehead fish is invasive are either ignorant or obstinate. Has the Northern Snakehead eliminated any fish in the lower Potomac River? The answer is no. Has fishing been hurt by the presence of the Northern Snakehead? The answer is no. The answers to those Snakehead fish questions in Hawaii, Japan, Pennsylvania and Florida are the same. Mr. Martin Gary, a fisheries ecologist with Maryland Department of Natural Resources that the “tidal area of the Potomac has seen a steep decline in the population of American shad fish, possibly because of snakeheads” is rank propaganda.  There is no evidence that Shad are a major source of food for the Snakehead fish. The fish reports show good numbers of Striped Bass, Largemouth Bass and Smallmouth Bass. All three Bass species are more likely to prey on Shad.  Flathead Catfish and Blue Catfish are more likely villains when it comes to shad. In fact, Greg Garman, director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Center for Environmental Studies Don Cosden, director of inland fisheries for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources have both implicated the Blue Catfish as responsible while indicating there may be other factors.

To Nancy:
I am not hiding but your argument is with Benjamin Franklin. He is one of the founders of the United States of America.  Mr. Franklin, as well as most of our founding fathers, was far more learned than in one in government today including our president. I did notice that you did not state where in The United States Constitution it says either the federal or state government can demand that: a) I surrender my pets or b) I kill any organism or c) the importation of any species can be banned without cause. I realize that many people want us to be the Union of Soviet Amerika. The founders of this country worried about government enslaving its citizens. They did not regulate the federal government so that state governments could enslave its citizens. So even though, the United States Constitution was written to restrict the intrusion of the federal government it also allowed that its citizens have unalienable rights. This means even though a state is not normally restricted in its laws it cannot arbitrarily write laws restricting individual rights. 
Ms. Nancy, you are a funny person. That remark about the steak knife would have 17th century people of the Ryukyu islands rolling in their graves, if they could hear it. Karate was developed by the Ryukyu people because the Shimazu clan of Japan had banned the people of the Ryukyu Islands from owning weapons even knives. In fact the colonists in the American colonies were subject to the British not just confiscating their weapons but anything the British wanted. The farmers of the Ukraine that forced from their homes and scattered by Stalin throughout the progressive Soviet Union were deprived of their property including knives. The Jewish-Germans in progressive Nazi Germany were deprived of property and lives. Cambodians in Kampuchea were forced into the countryside by the progressive Khmer Rouge being dispossessed of their belongings. On the North American Continent, the Cherokee lost their belongings when forced on the Trail of Tears. In the United States, German-Americans during the first World War were imprisoned and their processions confiscated by the progressive Woodrow Wilson administration. During World War II in the United States, the Japanese-American were imprisoned and their property confiscated by the progressive Franklin Roosevelt administration. The Roosevelt administration also had business men imprisoned for under-cutting prices the federal government was charging for products. Then there are the homeowners and business that watched wildlife agents from the progressive Bush administration confiscating their pets. Now you can include TSA agents for the progressive Obama administration doing genital pat-downs on minors. Add this to the killing of a pregnant woman at Ruby Ridge by federal agents as well as destroying the property and injuring of innocent people on drug raids to the wrong address, the list keeps growing. I’m sure your comments would have them all laughing. However I expect the relatives of the military that died in Somalia would certainly be less so.  Nor would either the Iraqi Kurds poisoned under progressive Sadaam or the Libyan people bombed and strafed under the progressive Khadafi.

@ wtommyb:

Quote from his post:

“Congratulations to Mr. Andrew and Mr. Thornton on experiencing the sporting and culinary delights of the Northern Snakehead fish. They also make a fascinating pet but unfortunately you will not experience that because the state has unconstitutionally deemed owners to be criminals and will jail you while confiscating your pet. Your better watch out, your rifles, pistols and steak knives are next.”

OOOH-the gubmint is coming to take away my steak knives. The blackhawk helicopters are circling now. I’d better hide them.

I have no idea who this poster is, but I can tell you that the states’ ban on owning this fish constitutional. I am not sure it’s accurate to say that you can be jailed for simply owning this fish.

Remember how the first snakehead appeared in Crofton: Some Chinese guy got one of these things to make soup for his sister (supposedly fish has curative abilities-more Chinese superstition). He dumped one in MD and, as they say, the rest is history. It is perfectly legal for any state to outlaw the ownership of these invasive fish, just as it is legal for the state of FL to now outlaw the ownership of pythons (another non-native animal species)which are in the process of destroying the Everglades.

Catch them and kill them. They are probally tasty when grilled. Just dont release them back into the waterways to devour all other species. At least so far they arent like those carp flying out of the water causing injuries when you get smacked in the face with these over populated nuisances.

I caught one of these ******** when i was noodling for catfish. The snakehead bite is bad but when I deep fried it and washed it down with a pint of icecream it was worth it.

To Mr. Steve
To clarify I am not speaking about you nor other reasoning gentlemen when I referred to political class and their sycophants. Rather I refer to people who stamp their foot and make childish statements instead of reasoned arguments like the AGFC biologist of who I spoke as well as others. I do appreciate your civil discourse even if we disagree.
wtommyb

To Mr. Steve continuing with the last post, I need to make a correction: “Government agents have introduced sick “sport fish” to eliminate healthy indigenous “trash” fish.

I told an AGFC biologist that the Northern Snakehead fish could swim in deep water and it is not a barrier. This is something he should have known because there is a government study that was completed the prior year that showed this. The AGFC was just too eager to waste tax money from you and me riding new exciting vehicles while spreading poison over 400 miles of waterways making many people sick and potentially promoting a vector-borne epidemic.

As you may know Snakeheads prefer soft-finned fish like killifish but if hungry enough will eat fish with hard spines like bream. The fact is often there is an abundance of forage fish to the point predators are not competing for food. The lack of predators are because they are kept in check by other predators, chiefly fishermen but also Striped Bass, Flathead Catfish, Crappie, Herons, Snakes and others.

There is a bigger problem with releasing water into waterways that was not the source of the water because parasites and diseases don’t need the fish to infect new waterways.

Actually the jury is in on the invasiveness of Snakehead fish just it is to the advantage of the political class and their sycophants not to listen.

Since ordinary people were unaware of the problems to the environment until now, they are supposed to lose that freedom?

Even if Snakehead fish were a problem (and their not) the bigger problem is government lying, restricting individual freedom, banning anything without legitimate justification, illegally confiscating private property, and requiring people to kill anything when they are not soldiers at war.
 
If you want address of government websites, I will gladly provide them.

wtommyb

Mr. Steve, I do appreciate your comments so I double checked what I had written. I did not say they could not live in oxygenated water. I said they could not compete with native American fish in freshwater. They also can’t compete with non-native Potomac fish in freshwater, i.e. Largemouth Bass, Flathead Catfish, Blue Catfish, Brown Trout and others.

I agree pets should not be released either in uncontrolled bodies of water, in forests, in grasslands and on street corners. Pets need to be kept either inside or in yards of their owners and this includes cats.

Up until relatively recently scientists with government agencies didn’t have a problem with foreign fish being released in American waters, they promoted it. Government agents introduced sport fish to eliminate healthy indigenous “trash” fish. Yet no one has barred government from destroying our waters. In fact in the sixties, I tried to convince Unites States Fish and Wildlife then later two state wildlife departments not to bring in Grass Carp and the other Asian Carp. I was told on the phone by one, the U. S. government knew what they are doing. The Arkansas and Texas departments ignored my letters.

To get back to what I said in my post, it is natural for an introduced population to expand, peak, and retreat to a lower population size in a new territory. This is taught in biological population studies in Universities. It is also what happened to the Northern Snakehead fish in Japan before Bass and Bluegill were release from confinement.

Re: Jack @ 4/27 1:52pm:

This fish probably made its way around the falls via the C&O Canal.

“Kill them…kill them all!”

Aet, boa’s and pythons are devastating the everglades from where people have released their pets once they got too big to keep anymore, much like how many an aquarium fish finds its way into a pond, lake, stream river and begin to cause problem.

“It is a shame that they had to be banned as pets and food because some people out there have no common sense. Much like the people who insist on having a Burmese python as a pet despite knowing that soon it will out grow the house.”

Physically dangerous pets are bad enough, but ecologically dangerous pets are a natural disaster in every sense.  A python or a pit bull that gets out might be dangerous, but it won’t devastate an ecosystem.  Snakeheads that get out will.

Ecological engineering is something that should be done by well-educated people in controlled environments.  Not by idiots who think something is pretty, or fishers that seed a river with fish that aren’t regulated so they can catch all they want.

wtommyb you a little off on some of your snakehead facts. While they can live in backwaters, whites ferry is far from it. The whole upper potomac is far from being a backwater. And while the jury may still be out on what harm they are doing to the ecosystem, that doesn’t mean that non-native foreign species should be introduced into the environment (aka letting the genie out of the bottle).  It is a shame that they had to be banned as pets and food because some people out there have no common sense. Much like the people who insist on having a Burmese python as a pet despite knowing that soon it will out grow the house.

awesome fish! much like an asain arawanna. personally, i would rush it home and put it in a large fish tank instead of killing it. feed it mice, goldfish etc.

Congratulations to Mr. Andrew and Mr. Thornton on experiencing the sporting and culinary delights of the Northern Snakehead fish. They also make a fascinating pet but unfortunately you will not experience that because the state has unconstitutionally deemed owners to be criminals and will jail you while confiscating your pet. Your better watch out, your rifles, pistols and steak knives are next. At least Mr. Odenkirk should know by now that Northern Snakehead fish do not constitute a threat to native fish. Northern Snakehead fish are a “backwater” Snakehead fish which means that they hold sway in the most oxygen deprived areas, i.e. swamps, sloughs, and ditches. They are unable to protect their eggs and fry from Sunfish (Bass and Bluegill) or Mosquitofish. The niches of “Backwater” Snakehead fish only slightly overlap with most “game fish.” These Snakehead fish utilize prey that for the most part out of reach for most “game fish” and are not built to be competition for fish of more oxygenated waters. The population explosion experienced in the Potomac River system is the natural function of a foreign creature in a new environment. This will peak and level out as the system becomes adjusted to the organism. Snakeheads have been raised in commercial ponds with Trout, Tilapia, and Carp. Many of the same fish that prey on Snakehead fish in their native habitat exist in Potomac waters including imported Bass and imported Bluegill as witnessed in Japan and in the United States. Why would it be illegal to own a pet in an area where it exists in the wild? Answer is subjection of the citizenry. If a person gives up individual freedoms for governmental security, he will eventual lose both freedom and security. My apologies to Benjamin Franklin.
wtommyb

Caught 4 in the last two days south of the Falls in DC waters. I must say they are delicious! I watched a group of Vietnamese catch 15-25 today with nets and even with a trident spear.

Let’s see…Walmart is the Chinese Embassy for all intents and purposes, Korea gives us stink bugs, Vietnam offers these Snakeheads, China gives us lead-paint toys….where does this end?

Snakeheads, stink bugs, cheap tools, lead-laden toys….All these things we have to thank countries like China for !

Nothing makes me more excited than a plate full of Tuna, served with a creampie for desert!

Catch’m, throw them on Ice, and export them to some poor country with hungry people.

I’m partial to blow fish!

I love perch!

It has eyes like a catfish.

It sort-of looks like a bass.

I heard it tastes like trout.

Ann is at it again!

I would flip out if I saw that in the river. Are they dangerous to human’s, will they bite people in the river? That thing looks scary. Wonder what it tastes like, not that I would try it.

I’m assuming there’s not length/weight requirement as long as they’re dead. Unlimited fishing! They probably taste like crap though.

Something is fishy here.  That snake had to either climb Great Falls or somebody put it in the river way upstream.

Start serving it at restaurants and it won’t be long before we over fish the Snakehead in America.

He should have took a switch to that fish and then took a picture!

Wow!! God’s creation!!!
Congratulations Mr. Thorton