Northern snakeheads – non-native, invasive, predatory fish sometimes called frankenfish – stacked up at a Susquehanna River fish passage intended for shad have pushed the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat into preventative action.
The commission has issued an advisory urging anglers who catch snakeheads to kill the fish and report it to the agency.
That advisory was issued late last week after operators of a fish lift at Conowingo Dam observed 35 snakeheads in the east fish lift and managed to net and remove 14 of them. But 21 of the snakeheads made it upriver of the dam and into the Conowingo Pool, about 5 miles downriver of the Pennsylvania-Maryland state line.
The 14-mile-long Conowingo Reservoir, which is the pool formed upriver of the Conowingo Dam, is the most-downriver pool of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
The fish passage systems at Conowingo Dam, Holtwood Dam upriver of Conowingo and Safe Harbor Dam upriver of Holtwood – all designed to assist migrating American shad in their spring spawning runs – did not begin operations on their normal starting date of April 1 due to restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic.
Fish passage operations commenced at Conowingo’s east fish lift on the afternoon of May 12, a point at which nearly 70 percent of the annual shad spawning migration would have already passed the dam in a typical spring.
Over the next four days only 485 shad were counted, but a record 35 snakeheads appeared.
Due to concern over increased invasive species passage and the lateness of the season for successful shad passage, the Susquehanna River Anadromous Fish Restoration Cooperative recommended that fish passage operations be immediately ceased.
According to the commission, fish passage operations at the Holtwood and Safe Harbor dams upriver were also ceased immediately, although no snakeheads were observed at either location.
During two days of operations, 21 shad passed the Holtwood Dam and one was observed passing the Safe Harbor Dam fish lift.
In response to the known presence of snakeheads in the Conowingo Pool, the commission launched surveillance operations utilizing boat electrofishing to find and remove snakeheads.
On May 21, while targeting likely habitat areas for the species, commission staff located and removed one snakehead from the river.
A private environmental consulting firm conducting an unrelated survey on the same section of the river also collected one snakehead and provided the specimen to the commission.
“Moving forward, biologists will combine other ongoing survey work targeting other species within the lower Susquehanna River to serve the dual purpose of searching for and removing snakeheads in the Conowingo Pond and its tributaries,” said Kris Kuhn, director of the commission’s Bureau of Fisheries.
“Anglers also play a critical role in controlling the spread of the invasive species and we’re counting on their cooperation.”
The commission noted that possession, transport or importation of a live snakehead is unlawful in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Any that are caught should be killed and disposed of properly or eaten.
Anglers are discouraged from releasing any snakeheads they catch and report it to the commission at 610-847-2442 or via email to tgrabowski@pa.gov.
The northern snakeheads, which is native to parts of China, Russia and Korea, first drew attention in the mid-Atlantic region in 2002 when a pair were discovered in a Maryland pond.
The invading species was first confirmed in Pennsylvania in July 2004 in Meadow Lake at Philadelphia.
In summer 2018 anglers began catching snakeheads in Lancaster County’s Octoraro Creek, a tributary that enters the Susquehanna River below Conowingo Dam.
In September 2019 an angler caught a snakehead in the Monongahela River near Braddock in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh.
For more information on northern snakeheads in Pennsylvania, including an identification guide, visit the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission website.
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Contact Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com.
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If you catch a frankenfish, kill it: Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission - pennlive.com
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