'Frankenfish': Invasive northern snakeheads harvested in record numbers in the Susquehanna

Now, here’s a job description.

The position entails monitoring the fish lift at the Conowingo Dam, spotting northern snakeheads trying to enter the waters above the dam, and grabbing them.

It’s a real job. According to a news release put out recently by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, “The fish lift at Conowingo Dam is essentially a water-filled elevator that collects migrating anadromous fish species (that live in salt water and migrate to fresh water to spawn), such as American shad, during their spawning run and transports them above the dam to the upper Susquehanna River and their traditional spawning areas. When invasive fish enter the lift, technicians remove them by hand and send them out for beneficial use.”

OK, we’ll get to “beneficial use” later, but imagine spending your workday grabbing northern snakeheads – a nasty-looking fish with flat heads and dagger-like teeth that are never going to win any beauty contests among aquatic species – and sending them off to their just reward. They can grow to be three feet long and can be ornery, a characteristic that makes them put up a fight when caught, making them a challenging and fun sport fish for anglers.

But snakeheads are invasive fish, a predator that poses a danger to native fish species. They are native to Asia and more likely than not they were introduced to U.S. watersheds in the early 2000s through people dumping them into waterways from aquariums or from fish markets.

And as invasive species, U.S. conservation agencies – mostly notably, those in Maryland, New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania and some southern states – have sought to eradicate them, or at least control their populations and limit their spread.

Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources has conducted harvests of the fish from the Conowingo Dam for three years and this year, between March and June, the department reported it had removed 2,106 of them at the dam, each one snatched from the fish lift by a person whose job is to do so. (The department also reported it also harvested 746 flathead catfish and 36 blue catfish – both considered predatory fish that skew the ecosystem and endanger native fish such as shad and smallmouth bass.)

The number of snakeheads, though, was startling. It was more than double the amount removed in any year since Maryland began its snakehead mitigation program in 2021.

Maryland first spotted snakeheads in the fish lift at the Conowingo in 2020, but not in great numbers. The stunning increase in just past four years, according to Branson Williams, manager of Maryland’s DNR invasive fish program, is an indication that the population of snakeheads in the upper Chesapeake and lower Susquehanna is booming.

“There are a lot of reasons to be concerned by snakeheads,” Williams said. For one, he said, they are considered apex predators, the top of the fishery food chain, consuming pretty much everything they encounter, throwing off the delicate balance of the aquatic ecosystem. They eat everything and have the potential to reduce or eliminate native fish species.

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Snakeheads are remarkably resilient and can spread in ways that other fish cannot. For instance, they can survive for days out of water and can migrate over land to nearby bodies of water or waterways, earning them the sobriquet “Franken-fish.” (They were first found in Pennsylvania in 2004 when an angler caught two in Philadelphia’s Meadow Lake. Since then, they have spread throughout state and have been found in York County’s Lake Redman.)

And they are prolific. “The snakehead numbers are up,” Williams said. “It’s the increase in the effort that's creating the increased numbers. It’s the increase in the population size in the Susquehanna and the upper Chesapeake.”

Because of that, Maryland, as well as other states, including Pennsylvania, have passed laws intended to reduce the snakehead population.

“In Pennsylvania,” said Mike Parker, communications director for the state’s Fish and Boat Commission, “it is unlawful to possess a live northern snakehead. In other words, if you catch one, you need to kill the fish.”

If you catch one and kill it, it doesn’t have to go to waste, though. You could fertilize your garden with them, or you could eat them. Its dense, white fillets are flaky and very mild, Williams said. “They taste good,” he said. “It’s so mild that they say if you don’t like fish, you’ll like snakeheads.” They can be prepared in a large variety of ways, even as ceviche, Williams said. Chefs love snakehead because it takes on just about any seasoning you use on them, he said.

The 13,000 pounds of snakehead harvested from the Conowingo were sent to J.J. McDonnell and Co. Inc., a seafood wholesaler south of Baltimore in Elkridge, Maryland, for processing.

The company donated a portion of the catch to local food banks in Cecil County, the DNR reported.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: 'Frankenfish': Invasive northern snakeheads harvested in record numbers in the Susquehanna