Department of Natural Resources warns snakeheads may be breeding more than once

ANNAPOLIS — The invasive northern snakehead, recently given the name Chesapeake Channa, may be breeding twice each season, according to biologists with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

This non-native fish species is on DNR’s most wanted list. The department is urging anglers to catch as many as possible and to destroy them, if not eaten, rather than returning them to Maryland waters.

Joseph Love, a Maryland DNR biologist, wrote a report indicating that female snakeheads have been found with egg clutches in two different sizes, indicating two spawning seasons.

The average female Chesapeake Channa carries more than 63,000 eggs.

These fish have been in Maryland waters since 2002, when adult fish were released into a pond in Crofton. Rather than dying in unfamiliar waters, the fish thrived and have now spread to the Chesapeake Bay and the Susquehanna River. Love found the fish easily acclimate to different water temperatures and are voracious hunters.

“It is important to document life history traits of a species in different habitats because we know there is plasticity in the traits of fishes based on the environment,” Love said. “This study fills a gap in what we know about Chesapeake Channa reproduction in the upper Chesapeake Bay.”