Snakehead Control and Management Plan Meeting

Maryland Fisheries Resource Office

USFWS

Feb 15 & 16, 2006

Attendance

  -------------- -------------------- ----------------------------------- --------------
  Name           Affiliation          E-Mail                              Phone

  Bob Lunsford   MD DNR Fisheries     <blunsford@dnr.state.us.md>         410-260-8321

  Jon Siemien    DC Fisheries and     <jon.siemien@dc.gov>                202-535-2273
                 Wildlife                                                 

  Tom Orrell     Smithsonian          <orrellt@si.edu>                    202-633-2151
                 Institution                                              

  Jim Gilmore    NYS DEC              <jjgilmor@gw.dec.state.ny.us>       718-482-4875

  Melissa K.     NYS DEC              <mkcohen@gw.dec.state.ny.us>        718-482-4022
  Cohen                                                                   

  Steve Chaconas National Bass Guide  <info@nationalbass.com>             703-380-7119
                 Service                                                  

  Don Cosden     MD DNR Fisheries     <dcosden@dnr.state.md.us>           410-260-8287

  Brian          MD DNR Fisheries     <brichardson@dnr.state.md.us>       410-643-6788
  Richardson                                                              X105

  Cindy Kolar    USGS                 <ckolar@usgs.gov>                   703-648-4023

  Jim Cummins    Interstate Comm. On  <jcummins@icprb.org>                301-984-1908
                 Potomac                                                  X106

  John Odenkirk  VDGIF                <john.odenkirk@dgif.virginia.gov>   540-899-4169
                                                                          X117

  Richard        Acad. Natl. Sci.     <horwitz@acnatsci.org>              215-299-4092
  Horwitz        Philadelphia                                             

  Julie Thompson USFWS                <julie_thompson@fws.gov>            410-573-4577

  Steve          USFWS                <steve_minkkinen@fws.gov>           410-573-4506
  Minkkinen                                                               
  -------------- -------------------- ----------------------------------- --------------

**Welcome and Introductions:**

Steve Minkkinen who is panel coordinator welcomed the workgroup and led
introductions of participants.

Steve Minkkinen gave an Overview of Northern Snakehead (*Channa argus*)
Introductions in the U.S.

This particular species (Northern Snakehead) has the ability to become
established in the United States, and even southern Canada. Our first
experience with northern snakehead was in Crofton Maryland in 2002.
Snakeheads were found in a storm water retention pond that received run
off from the strip mall development. The pond was about four acres in
size; it was shallow and heavily vegetated. It was somewhat of a popular
fishing spot in the local area. The timeline of these events was that an
angler caught a fish that he could not identify and took a picture of it
that he sent it to MDNR (Maryland Department of Natural Resources).
Shortly there after it was determined to be a northern snakehead, soon
after which another one was caught along with several juveniles in the
Crofton pond. This really ignited a media frenzy like I have never seen,
more than any other introduced species to the U.S. Subsequent to that a
task force was assembled by the Secretary of Natural Resources at DNR.
The Patuxent River was sampled to see if fish had escaped from that
pond. The pond could be seasonally attached to the Little Patuxent River
via a discharge canal, and in periods of high run off, that pond flowed
directly into the Patuxent River. The advisory panel decided upon a
course of action to eradicate snakeheads from the pond. They conducted a
bio assay to make sure that rotenone was in fact effective at killing
snakeheads, and it turned out that was the case. Unfortunately when it
came time to treat the pond, the land owner became very cautious about
potential liabilities of applying chemicals to the pond. It took quite a
bit of negotiations before the land owner granted access. In the middle
of August herbicides were applied to the pond to knock down the
submerged aquatic vegetation (S.A.V.) to make it easier to get around
the pond. Rotenone was applied late September; afterwards sampling did
indicate that there was a complete kill in the pond. However northern
snakeheads had become the dominant species in the pond, there were over
a thousand juveniles and several adults were captured. We thought that
was a very good success story, we had rapid response, and it was a
coordination between a whole number of agencies. At that time I really
thought that would serve to increase public awareness about non native
species. It did serve to increase some federal and state regulations to
prevent controlled releases. Maryland and Virginia have both banned the
possession of northern snakehead, and there was federal action on the
Lacey Act adding them to the list of injurious wildlife species, to
prohibit import into the country or cross state lines without a permit.
However I also think it added fuel to the fire for organizing a mid
Atlantic regional ANS panel. As of late, four different species of the
snakehead family have been found in eleven different states. Fourteen
states have banned the possession of live snakeheads and I have already
mentioned the Lacey Act. We thought that was the end of the story, I
gave a presentation to the assistant secretary of the Interior in early
2004, unfortunately in the spring of 2004 an angler caught a snakehead
in the Potomac River. We did organize a response again and several of
the agencies got together and went out sampling and rewards were
offered, Bass Pro Shops offered gift certificates, Maryland DNR offered
baseball hats as did the Fish and Wildlife Service. However we were all
wondering, now that the snakeheads are in an open system, what was going
to happen next. Unfortunately, in my mind, the worst thing happened
next, we had twenty captures of northern snakehead in 2004, and in 2005
we had over 300 captures showing that these fish had become established
very quickly and that they are growing very quickly. The largest number
of captures has been in Dogue Creek, however just last week we had
another snakehead turned in at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens found in
National Park Service ponds that can be tidally connected to the
Anacostia River.

Jim Cummings: About how big was that fish?

Steve Minkkinen: Around sixteen inches.

Jim Cummings: And that was in the Anacostia, wasn't there a large one
caught there last year.

Steve Minkkinen: Yes, that one was about twenty five inches.

Steve Minkkinen: The one found last week was speared by a Great Blue
Heron in the pond. The following day we did some sampling in those ponds
that did not turn up any snakeheads, however it was very difficult to
sample in those ponds. But obviously the question is how quickly these
snakeheads are able to colonize the Potomac River. Tom Orrell did some
genetic analysis of snakeheads captured from several different
locations, Crofton, Wheaton, Meadow Lake in Massachusetts, and the
Potomac River. His results show that there was no haploid type shared
between these locations. So there was probably was not one source for
all of these introductions and the Crofton fish were probably not the
source for the Potomac fish. There was a single haploid type found in
all the Potomac fish indicating these were offspring of either a single
pair of breeding adults or multiple adult female siblings. Genetic data
supports the Potomac River population is breeding and that has been
further pointed out as we have captured hundreds of snakeheads in the
area. The genetic data also shows that all five introductions were from
different sources. Snakeheads have been introduced into other places
along the eastern seaboard, Meadow Lake in New York City. Last I knew
there were about sixteen snakeheads captured, I assume that is still
accurate, these ponds do have some salinity them and are partially
tidally connected to Flushing Bay.

Jim Gilmore: Actually we have caught nineteen and they are all adults,
the smallest one we have caught was about nine inches long. We have not
been able to sample well in the fresh areas. Flushing Bay up there is
actually the end of LaGuardia Airport and there is an old tide gate, it
is suppose to be a freshwater system but the tide gate failed years ago,
the water is about 3 to 5 PPT. Years ago when we didn't have snakeheads,
it was about ten to twelve years ago, and we just had carp and a whole
lot of other weird things in there. The water quality is really poor,
the ph is about 9.5, and it was an old ash site where they would dump
incinerators before they held the world fair. We are hopping that we
don't have the significant problem that you guys have because I don't
think we have reproduction going on because of the poor water quality
and habitat. See over there on the right, we sampled that in the fall
and there were no snakeheads in there at all, it was more a large mouth
bass population. We are pretty sure of the source, if you look just to
the right of Flushing Bay, where there is sort of a little city that is
Flushing. If you go through downtown Flushing, that is where you're over
in Asia; there is a 90+ percentage Asian community that our law
enforcement people go through there on a regular basis to make sure the
ban on importing for the food market is being upheld.

Steve Minkkinen: Poor water quality is not something that I would say is
going inhibit them very much. In the Crofton pond the D.O. was always
less than one, and they were reproducing in there.

Steve Minkkinen: One question that I had from the folks in New York was
the fact that the ponds were connected to Flushing Bay, which was, could
salinity be one thing that could be used to control snakeheads. Brian
Richardson and I conducted a number of experiments at Maryland's Manning
hatchery exposing snakeheads to freshwater, low salinity (3ppt),
intermediate salinity holding snakeheads at 10 PPT, and a trial where
salinity was increased one PPT. per day to see what the max tolerance
and exposure levels were. We fed the fish while they were in the tanks,
monitored water quality to make sure it wasn't a water quality problem.
We conducted three separate trials between late August and the end of
September and we had some treatments that lasted up to forty eight days.
As for results from these experiments; we had low mortality for our
control fish and low salinity trials. In our first two trials in the
hatchery we had water temperatures ranging between 20 and 24 C. Fish
held at that temperature in 10PPT died in ten to twelve days. Increasing
the salinity 1 PPT per day, between fifteen and eighteen PPT induced
mortality. The third trial, being done in November our water temperature
had dropped between 15 to 20 C. We held several snakeheads for over
thirty days at 10 PPT; they were still feeding and appeared to be doing
very well. They needed to winterize the hatchery, and we ended up
increasing salinity 1 PPT per day until they killed the fish. We found
that lethal salinity to be about 18 PPT, for some reason at lower
temperatures these fish can tolerate higher salinity levels.

Melissa Cohen: How large were those fish?

Steve Minkkinen: We had some fish that were about six to eight inches
and we had some fish that were twenty to twenty two inches. In the third
trial we actually tried to have large fish and small fish in the same
treatment.

Brian Richardson: We had fish between 200 mm and 400 mm

Steve Minkkinen: These are surface salinity levels between 1984 and 2005
at the mouth of the Potomac River. I just wanted to get some sort sense
if we could expect snakeheads to be completely walled off at the mouth
of the Potomac, and you can see during the periods between January and
June we can expect to see less than 20 C, we have plenty of periods
where salinity levels are below lethal range. So I still think it is an
open question, in my mind, if they get abundant enough in the Potomac
can they colonize outside the Potomac River.

Tom Orrell: I think you have a major storm event you can get a
freshwater surge that pushes way down. I think in 1974 freshwater pushed
half way down the Chesapeake Bay. I think that salinity as a method of
control is not really admissible.

Steve Minkkinen: I am not at all confident at this point in time.
Although seeing that these fish were introduced by human interaction,
maybe we don't need to worry as much about colonization as human
introduction at this point in time.

Steve Minkkinen: We also began looking at parasite loadings; we did
notice that most of the snakeheads captured did in fact carry some
parasites. We provided some samples to Andy Kane at the University of
Maryland and we were able to identify it as a Nematode. On the website I
have posted some emails between myself, John Odenkirk and some
researchers over in Japan. I was concerned initially that perhaps this
was an introduced parasite, *Pingis sinensis.* Their entire thinking is
that it is an eustrongylides which is native and they are getting it
from their prey. They like to feed on soft rayed fished killifish, and
mummichogs tend to carry that parasite. They did say to positively
identify it we need to get an adult, which means we need to infect birds
with it. You can't positively identify them at this juvenile phase. The
parasite loads don't seem to be affecting their condition at all, like I
said these fish are growing very quickly.

Steve Minkkinen: These are some pictures of snakeheads and as you can
see they are designed very different a lot of other fish. You can see
this with the air bladder that runs the entire length of the body.
Really set up to be piscivorous, you can see their esophagus and the
pharengial teeth. These are used to trap the prey to make sure that they
don't get away. John, did you say they were eating fish head first or
tail first?

John Odenkirk: Tail first, it is funny because it is actually something
we saw out in the field, usually when you are out sampling and you catch
a fish like a bass, you always see a tail of something like a gizzard
shad come back up when something gets shocked. But with the snakehead
you always see a head looking up at you. So I guess they are always
attacking the fish from behind. I guess that is why they have a
preference for upper Dogue Creek and that headwater stream with that
extraordinary rain event in late October. The rainfall and subsequent
runoff triggered a mass migration of juvenile fish and snakeheads to the
headwaters of Dogue Creek. There was a lot of forage including juvenile
brown bullheads, pumpkinseeds and bluegills. But the snakeheads were
feeding almost exclusively on the killifish with only an occasional
bluegill.

Steve Minkkinen: The picture on the right is just showing you a parasite
and also and ovary. In fact this fish was one of the fish that we had
been submitting to salinity tests. It in fact was developing eggs and I
have a sample of that for people to view. To me the ovaries seem to be
in a very strange position, very much different than other fish. I am
still not sure what I am looking when trying to look at testes in any of
these fish. Do you feel that way to John?

John Odenkirk: Basically what we ended up doing is if you couldn't find
an ovary or even a spent ovary which is pretty easy to pick out, and it
was an adult size fish, then we classified it as a male. It is actually
pretty hard to come up with the testes.

Steve Minkkinen: Yes I would like someone to tell me exactly what that
looks like.

The reason that we are here today is one of the senate committees
reading all the press about northern snakeheads directed the U. S. Fish
and Wildlife Service to report on what we are going to do with
snakeheads. So the Fish and Wildlife Service has been tasked with
developed a national control and management plan. All of these
management plans are always collaborative efforts between state and
federal agencies, industry stakeholders, and non government agencies. I
think the focus of this plan should be what we are going to do in the
Potomac and North East, where we have been having introductions, really
try and specify priority of action items. In general what prevention
methods are going to be looked at throughout the United States to
prevent spread to other areas? Also we need to conduct research, we no
very little about this fish, everything that we are doing now is based
on new information; we need to also decide what we are going to do with
outreach, and in my mind law enforcement tactics. Some general
information about how the plan is going to be developed, I would have to
coordinate this effort through the Service and I have asked all of you
to participate in this working group. The time frame is going to be
fairly short, I am really under the gun to at least have a draft working
plan by April. It goes quite a bit of review after that, Bureau of
Invasive Species looks at it, then they disseminate it to the Fish and
Wildlife Service, then it goes out for public comment on the federal
register. We then have to respond to public comment, and eventually it
goes to the ANS Board. I do have some very specific guidance on
developing the plan if anyone is interested I will be glad to discuss
this with you more.

Bob Lunsford: Steve have we been tasked with northern snakeheads, or
snakeheads in general, because there is some geographic limits when you
talk about northern snakeheads?

Steve Minkkinen: Actually I did ask for specific guidance on that from
the Washington office, but I have not had a definite answer back.
Everything that I have gotten says northern snakehead on it, but I
really think we would be making a mistake if we limit ourselves to
northern snakeheads. Various snakeheads have shown up in several markets
in several different areas, and there are other species out there that
could be a problem. We would have to get down to talking about specific
species, when it would be easier just to talk about snakeheads.

Jim Cummins: I think we should keep it as snakeheads, unless directed
otherwise.

Jon Siemien: How many of the species have a lower level lethal
temperature range that they would be able to survive in Northern
climates?

Rob Lunsford: The Blotched and the Northern are the two that we were
concerned with.

Jon Siemien: So only two of the twenty nine species.

Rob Lunsford: That we are aware of, yes.

John Odenkirk: But that is based on the literature, which also says that
northerns are limited by salinity.

Tom Orrell: We just don't have data on a lot of these species, that's
why there is going to be a lot of errors. The more data we can get, the
better our plan is going to be.

Steve Minkkinen: There have been some emails from the researchers in
Japan saying that they are going to try and send us some literature.
However we might need to get it translated, I think that will be well
worth the time to do.

Jim Gilmore: Just on that language thing and translating the literature
to English, one of the things we are struggling with is we have nine
languages that we need to translate the outreach into, and we are having
problems getting translations.

Steve Minkkinen: If you look over a number of the plans, every one of
them has an outreach component to them. There is also usually an
implementation table that prioritizes action items and costs. I also
think we should also incorporate law enforcement actions and priorities.

John Odenkirk: We chose four languages for our sign, which I'll pass
around, Korean, Chinese, and English. These have not gotten into mass
distribution yet, but we get them out as we can. We pass them out in
communities and post them at boat ramps around the various Asian
communities.

Jim Gilmore: Who did the translations for you?

John Odenkirk: I bid it out; I actually got the contact information from
Maryland DNR. I think we even used a sign that Maryland DNR came up
with. I spoke with a woman in public affairs who was very helpful and
actually used the same company. It was also fairly inexpensive.

Steve Minkkinen: What has Maryland done so far, I know you have some
fliers posted on the internet?

Bob Lunsford: We have the information posted on the internet, I believe
Don has brought copies of some of the fliers we have put out. We have
posted at tackle shops, and we have also created a cooperative fact
sheet that we have been putting out. Mainly what we have had a problem
with is the staff time it takes, people here have heard that northern
snakeheads are bad, but I bet you we have killed two thousand Red Hake
in this state, also Gobies and Blennies.

Steve Minkkinen: One thing in my mind is that probably at one point in
time we should talk about what jurisdictions that have snakeheads are
going to continue to do as far as encouraging the public to keep
snakeheads. We are evaluating how quickly these fish spread, anglers do
catch them and it tells you something about how quickly they are
spreading out, but then you have to run down and identify a red hake.

If you look at the agenda we could just have some general discussion,
identify seven areas that have been the direction of other management
plans that I have looked at.

Julie Thompson: At some point can we have the states give an update
about what the states are doing and what they have done, because that
would be helpful for me.

Bob Lunsford: We are continuing to encourage people who catch fish that
they can't identify to contact the department, and that is one of the
reasons the hake issue was brought up, we do try and run down as many of
those as we can by phone and digital photographs. Those people who are
absolutely convinced we usually do have to send a biologist down to look
at it. We are continuing to look for snakeheads as part of our routine
survey work for Largemouth Bass recruitment survey, and any of our
anadromous work. We are also actively participating in the public
information campaign. Beyond an unwritten policy at this point where we
catch, quarantine, and eradicate population such as the Crofton Pond or
Pine Lake, there is no protocol or policy yet established for open
systems such as the Potomac River. I know the one issue in Maryland when
Crofton happened was the Department did not have any legal right to
enter private property for control methods and that legislation hadn't
passed, and now that allows the department to enter private property to
investigate and address nuisance wildlife issues.

Jim Cummins: Just a clarification, you have a no live possession law,
but you can still possess a snakehead in Maryland as long as it is not
alive?

Steve Minkkinen: It is specific to northerns too, isn't it?

Bob Lunsford: Northern or Blotched, the tropical species we don't see to
be a threat. I am going to pose a question to Steve, and that is are we
going to broaden to tropical species and start to consider the
implications that the Fish and Wildlife addressed down in Florida, than
that to me is a whole different issue than the North East states having
to deal with only two species that can survive over winter.

Jim Cummins: That's a good point, but in the national plan you could
probably put language in there that would reduce the need in the
Northern states to take action against some species.

Bob Lunsford: I think what we want to caution is developing a plan that
indicates an action ought to be taken when a population has been
detected, if you are in a Northeast state and you find Chevrons in a
pond, that to me is one management plan where you think we may have a
bad winter and they are gone, but the protocol is that you go in the
following spring to sample and make sure they are gone. But if you are
in Maryland and you find a population of northerns in a pond where you
can eradicate there is a different issue there.

Jim Cummins: So regionally each response is going to be different. In
Maryland you have in your flier you ask that if you catch a snakehead
you kill it by cutting or bleeding. Do you give better instructions on,
I guess, humanely effectively dispatch the fish to the public.

Don Cosden: I think that the purpose of that it is you need to recognize
that if you just put them in a bucket three hours later they are still
going to be alive.

Steve Minkkinen: It is going to jump out of that bucket every time.

Jim Cummins: What I am saying is we need to have a way to assure that
these fish are dead, and that the public has a fairly easy way of
understanding how to kill them. I am also thinking of a way for the
conservation officers that are likely to have to enforce alive or dead
possession law that they can identify that something is truly dead and
has to be a highly visible way to determine fish is dead.

Bob Lunsford: I think clearly to be sure that the rascals are dispatched
is to remove the gill arches from the spinal column, to reach inside the
operculum and pinch them off. That will pretty well kill them then.

Jim Cummins: I think we should come up with a standard method for
dispatching these fish so that the conservation officers will be looking
for one thing.

Bob Lunsford: When we originally wrote that, we wanted to collect a few
of these things and do weight and length measurements, dissections, and
if it is an issue of possession, remove the head.

Steve Minkkinen: I really agree with that recommendation, I am pretty
fearful that people are going to use the Dogue Creek introduction to go
get snakeheads and bring other places. I have heard from law
enforcement, and different agencies the concern expressed over that fact
that people have access to them.

John Odenkirk: Our original concern was that if the head is cut off we
would loose the otoliths along the way, but now I believe that we have
enough otolith samples, so I too am fine with cutting the head off. And
prior to July 1^st^ of 2005 it was illegal to possess live or dead, but
now you can possess dead if legal caught and we are notified.

Tom Orrell: Are there any issues where you run across and angler who
does not want to kill a fish?

John Odenkirk: We have had a couple brought in by people who catch and
release and have never considered killing one of their fish, it appeared
as if they would have no problem with cutting the head off of a
snakehead.

Tom Orrell: Have you come across anyone who does not want to cut the
head off so that the fish can be mounted?

John Odenkirk: The way we have been telling people to keep the fish if
they want it to mount is to submerge it in a cooler full of ice, but to
make sure that the water drains from the cooler.

Jim Cummins: Yes but then you get into the idea of transporting them; I
think that they should have to be dead before you leave the water body.

Jim Gilmore: The problem that we have been having is most of the water
bodies in New York City are managed by the New York City Parks
Department, and they have a rule that there is to be no killing of any
animal, but what we did for the immediate issue was we closed the lake
to fishing. However, as we run into finding them in other places we are
going to have the same issue.

Steve Minkkinen: Do we want to continue going around with the states
situations?

Don Cosden: I have a question for John real quick. John I notice on the
bottom of your posters you have a toll free number to call, but lets say
I only speak Vietnamese and I call that number am I going to be able to
speak with someone that speaks Vietnamese?

John Odenkirk: No we are lucky to have operators for that number.

Jim Cummins: Do you have that same problem in New York with the eleven
languages.

Jim Gilmore: We have some ability, but it is mostly Spanish. But I
believe that it is good that we are at least getting the message out
there. Our main problem is trying to communicate to the families who are
not aware of the consumption advisories and rely on fish to feed their
families.

Steve Minkkinen: How about D.C. waters?

Jon Siemien: For the last fifteen years we have had an extensive
sampling protocol where for ten months out of the year we are electro
fishing the sites, we gill net in the spring, fisherman surveys in the
spring, and seine netting ten months out of the year. If we find a fish
we will remove the fish, when we talk to anglers and they ask, we tell
them to remove the fish. The only law we have in effect is that it is
illegal to introduce any non native species into natural waters.

Jim Cummins: What about possession, do you see possession as being a big
issue?

Jon Siemien: I don't see possession as being a problem, because it is
illegal in Maryland and Virginia, so the only way it is going to get
into D.C. waters is by transporting it across state lines and federal
laws already prohibit that.

Break

Steve Minkkinen: Let's continue with state activities.

Richard Horwitz: A snakehead was found in small pond, after which
sampling took place and found a few small adults. The following year
sampling resulted in finding a variety of different sized snakeheads,
including fry. There was a connection found to Delaware River. The
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission did not implement a control
measure at that point in time. However, it is illegal to posses any
species of snakehead in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Cooperative
meeting brought up the idea of a control plan. At this point in time
there is no control effort, because the area is heavily fished, and most
anglers know when they catch a snakehead; however some anglers say they
are seeing captured snakeheads being returned to the water. The anglers
that have been surveyed say that the snakeheads are being dispatched.
There are several reports of snakeheads being caught, but there has now
been one documented capture outside the area of the pond in the Delaware
River. It has been suspected that the anglers may be having some control
on the population. The Pennsylvania Sea Grant has shown interest.

Jim Cummins: Does Pennsylvania allow the possession of dead snakeheads?

Richard Horwitz: The law currently states that one cannot possess a live
snakehead. A few snakeheads have been found in some restaurants, new
regulations state that no fish can be brought in from out of state.

Steve: What is the current situation in New York?

Jim Gilmore: The Department of Environment Conservation had done
extensive sampling except for in city, where there was no real extensive
angling until the 1990's. After which we began sampling and found that
as a result of the no take program, a trophy largemouth bass fishery had
developed. In general the only things found are common invasives;
however one night we caught three northern snakeheads in a fyke net set
overnight. We do not believe there to be high reproductive rates, but,
there wasn't a large amount sampling gear available in the area and it
took a while to get gear into area. We were able to do some small scale
sampling, and we plan on extensive sampling in spring via new funding.
We believe that the higher temperatures in the summer combined with the
idea that we could raise the salinity levels above 15 PPT, and kill of
the snakehead population. We plan to pump water in from tide gates, but
we need to repair tide gait first. We closed the lake to fishing which
is surrounded by a highway and believe the only way snakeheads could
escape is by human removal. We plan on intensify sampling in water
bodies around Asian communities and are going to try and increase public
outreach. We have heard that there is a religious connection to fish
(Asian) and currently we have laws against the possession of live
snakeheads but there is no restriction against possessing one that is
dead. We have gone to aquariums stores to look for these fish, but we
have been told that the store owners do not carry snakeheads, because
the fish are being returned as a result of complaints that the fish get
too large and are susceptible to two types of disease. Out goal for this
year is to try and rid the city of snakeheads, and plan to react to new
populations as they arise. So far we have found fifteen snakeheads with
the smallest being around 9in in length and the rest between 20 -- 30
inches.

There was a question about the other fish species in the pond

Jim Gilmore: American eel, white perch, small numbers in bass

Discussion about prayer fish releases. This is a traditional Asian
ceremony where releasing live fish is considered good luck. It could be
a potential source of introductions.

Steve: more worried about intentional introductions

Jon Siemien: Those who do it by accident are the ones who get caught,
not the ones who have ulterior motives

Jim Gilmore: If we don't have reproducing populations, we are
considering implementing a bounty, what are the thoughts on that?

John Odenkirk: I think that bounties encourage people to introduce them
into other areas.

Steve: I have to agree, I personally am worried about the thoughts of
the public liking the fish, and wanting them introduced everywhere.

Jon Siemien: We need to get an idea of the public opinion, we need to
carefully put out our message, because we don't want to burn the bridges
behind us.

Jim Cummins: I believe that the professionals are being careful, it is
the media that is spinning the image. I am concerned about how media
presents the idea to the public.

Steve Chaconas: Look at what the public is saying about the introduction
of hydrilla, that wasn't that bad, how bad can the snakeheads be?

Steve: I believe we should push the idea of stewardship

Steve Chaconas: Bass Pro Shops offered a bounty until local citizens
tried to get bounty for 80 illegally caught snakeheads captured in Dogue
Creek.

Jim Gilmore: From what I understand, the local anglers are having
difficulty catching snakeheads.

Steve Chaconas: I have also seen that in the area, they are easiest to
catch during their spawning season.

Don Cosden: I think we should discourage the idea of this fish as
valuable food fish.

Jim Cummins: I think we should encourage people to eat them.

Steve Minkkinen: I think that perception creates a market, and results
in the movement of fish.

Jim Cummins: We need more people to participate in the control of these
fish to prevent them from over running of system.

Steve Minkkinen: It needs to be determined what control methods we are
going to try and use.

Steve Chaconas: We need to have the media cover the penalties associated
with introducing and transporting these fish. A lot of people from out
of town are hearing about these fish in the media and would like to
catch snakeheads; however a lot of the guides would like to keep
population low so they can keep other sport fish levels high.

Bob Lunsford: Most guides will probably cut head off, and not re-release

Cindy Kolar: Invasive carp management plan incorporated a lot of
commercial harvest; but I would hesitate to say it is a good idea with
snakeheads because of the habitat that can support them.

Jim Cummins: We are not making the snakehead a game fish, it is a game
fish, and if we say it is a bad tasting fish and it tastes good, which
could be a problem.

Bob Lunsford: Getting commercial fishermen to participate in the control
effort could present a problem; they probably think that it will slow
them down if we ask them to dispatch each one they catch. It is a
possibility they may just throw them overboard because they don't have
anyway to sell them, and they may not touch them because they don't want
to be caught with them.

John Odenkirk: We need to regulate the laws in all of the different
districts so that they are the same.

Jim Cummins: Would be nice to have a commercial fisherman out there
looking for them, what about a bounty for commercial fisherman?

Bob Lunsford: We have that for black drum now, it is an idea, but it
needs discussion.

Steve Chaconas: Incorporating the people that work on the water into the
control method will be beneficial and we need their support to make the
program work

Steve Minkkinen: Anglers caught thirteen snakeheads in the Potomac in
2004 and eleven were caught by anglers in 2005.

Steve Chaconas: SAV was found in different parts of the Potomac River
and therefore the bass fisherman where fishing in different areas. SAV
has large influence where bass anglers will be fishing, I predict same
thing this year on where fishing will take place, not in the small
creeks

Julie Thompson: Can we employ commercial waterman?

Steve Minkkinen: It is hard to catch these fish, we have missed a lot in
our various sampling methods, mostly because it is hard to get to where
the snakeheads are likely to be found. I would like to create a list of
different control methods and suggestions.

Steve Chaconas: DNR sampling efforts are in the spring and summer when
SAV prevents boat movement. Try doing it in winter?

Steve Minkkinen: We don't know a lot about the habits of the fish
throughout the year and we need to work on that.

Julie Thompson: Radio Telemetry?

John: I have a study that is being developed but I am trying to get
money to fund it because I don't have enough personnel to track the
fish.

Julie Thompson: What about graduate students?

John Odenkirk: So we are going from killing everything to releasing
everything with a tag, because we don't know the habits of the fish and
it could have direct impacts of letting a sub population go with tags to
discover these habits to improve control.

Julie Thompson: If research is incorporated in this plan; money should
become available to support research.

Jim Cummins: We need to get out of the control phase and into the
research phase.

John Odenkirk: Just lately have we realized they have established a
reproducing population.

Jim Cummins: I think in the snakehead control plan we need to allude to
the general failure around the country eradication responses, and in the
Potomac I think we should move from eradication of the species to
research.

Julie: In the open systems you have to realize that you can not
eradicate a species in an open species, we can plan to eradicate in
closed systems around the country but in the Potomac we need to control
the spread.

Cindy Kolar: But with the management plan we are going to identify
management recommendations, so it is not like we have lost the
opportunity for early detection/rapid response. There are plenty of
places in the country where snakeheads have yet to be found, and this
says that we are to be making management recommendations so I think that
there should be an early detection rapid response section to the plan.

Jim Cummins: In that stand, it would be more appropriate that you kill
every fish or every creature that you are trying to control than doing
research and studies, which would go more into the control phase; that
is what I am illustrating. I agree that it is very improbable but I
wouldn't say impossible to eradicate fish or species that get into an
open system.

Tom Orrell: I think it is really creature dependent, something with slow
growth is easy to eradicate.

Jim Cummins: We could control passenger pigeons that once covered the
sky and flew everywhere, we controlled them pretty well, eradicating a
species can be done but it is something we don't know. I think it is a
good time to illustrate that nationally and the Potomac River is a good
example, rapid response for trying to control these invasive species is
slow.

Bob Lunsford: There are a couple levels of rapid response, in the case
of the Crofton Pond, we were able to isolate and quarantine a four acre
pond, and then we sterilized the area and anything that used gills to
breathe died. But you got a different situation in New York where you
have 93 acre pond, but from what I understand is you don't have a real
popular fishing spot. What is John going to do if it gets into Burke
Lake a 250 acre pond, and if I am correct that is a water supply
reservoir?

John Odenkirk: That is a state fishing area.

Bob Lunsford: But what would you do if it got in there?

John Odenkirk: If it was in the Rappahannock water shed I might rotenone
it, but seeing that it is in the Potomac water shed I can't do anything
with it.

Bob Lunsford: What I am thinking now if this panel makes a
recommendation we need to have some sort of balance, where if it was to
get into Liberty Reservoir up in Baltimore County where that is a water
supply we wouldn't be able to rotenone, but a small pond in Crofton, we
could knock that off pretty good.

Steve Minkkinen: That is an issue for example with New York rotenone
there probably wouldn't be acceptable to the public.

Jim Gilmore: They want everything there to be saved and moved somewhere
else.

Jim Cummins: Yes, but with the Crofton snakehead it was 2 months between
fish when the fish was caught and when the pond was rotenoned.

Bob Lunsford: There is a couple reasons for that; the angler thought the
fish he caught was a threatened or endangered species so it was
released. It wasn't until someone went in and caught two adults in July.
We moved pretty quickly once we had a fish presented to us and was
identified.

Jim Cummins: That was a dry year and if you got a major storm event in
that same pond a different year in the time that it took to respond the
Little Patuxent could have easily been affected.

Bob Lunsford: Before we rotenoned the pond or even got land owner
permission we went in there and created a sand bag berm at that low
point, but you are right if that flooded it could have gotten out.

Don Cosden: We were pretty rapid with the Wheaton Pond, we got to that
within a week

Julie Thompson: So we need to come up with a rapid response model?

John Odenkirk: Something like a flow chart, something for lentic water
and something for lotic water. Lotic you go immediately into the
management control mode, lentic you go into the eradication mode based
on size. If you think about it how many hours did Shenandoah National
Park people tried to eradicate Brown Trout from those headwater streams?
They gave up and we are talking about waters that are not even as wide
as this table and they couldn't even get all of the Brown Trout out of
it.

Steve Minkkinen: I think we should be making control recommendations.

Bob Lunsford: Think about the effort that we put into Little Hunting
Creek; we had 11 electro fishing boats in there from 3 agencies, and you
found one in there when we left for lunch.

Jon Siemien: Unless you can positively rotenone a desired area, how are
we to know we got them all?

Cindy Kolar: The only thing we know now is that they gather when they
spawn so that is the only way we could look for them.

Steve Minkkinen: There is a whole section that should be in there on
research and collecting information on biology behavior, looking at how
they spread, stock assessment data, considering biological control, and
other issues that should fall into there.

Bob Lunsford: One of the biology questions is, during spawning if you
remove the adults, how susceptible to predation are the remaining
juveniles.

Steve Minkkinen: There was some indication of that up in Philadelphia
wasn't there?

Richard Horwitz: Yes, it wasn't the most technical observation but the
fisherman said very clearly that when you removed the adults immediately
Bluegill came in and just nailed the juveniles.

Steve Chaconas: Have the impacts of cold water truly been explored, have
we been through cold enough winters to know whether or not these fish
will be impacted?

Steve Minkkinen: They can survive in Moscow, so cold tolerance is not a
problem.

Julie Thompson: Can the genetic analysis studies done on the fish show
where the fish are coming from? Anyway we could use that to pinpoint
where they are being imported from illegally?

Tom Orrell: If we knew the genetics of all the other snakeheads live,
yes. The genetics are being worked on and if the word was put out world
wide it is possible.

Julie Thompson: That way we could know about what areas where they are
coming from.

Jim Cummins: For example if we know where they are coming from, we can
see what habitats they can tolerate, for example if they are coming from
specific regions in China.

Julie Thompson: We could also get samples from the Law Enforcement
seizures to get an idea of where they are coming from.

Steve Minkkinen: This is some of the areas that snakeheads are coming
from. Ken will go more in depth into this.

John Odenkirk: Just two days ago we discussed where we wanted to go with
the public exposure on the web site. This discussion here has gotten me
thinking even more about the idea of people targeting the species and
eating them, we are going to have to rethink this area. We are
continuing to have a lot of public interaction, and a lot of effort is
being put towards going and looking at snakeheads. Somehow I became in
charge of this and I have all of the data from looking at all of the
snakeheads. The snakeheads are legal to keep if caught hook and line
legally and killed and we are notified, and this was effective July
1^st^. After the first year we needed to scale back our sampling effort,
and we decided to try and sample areas where anglers are catching them
and sample two new areas each time. Our sampling has mostly been with
electro fishing and that requires 3 people, we have had an increase in
catch per unit effort in 2005. That could be because our effort has
gotten better or because the snakehead populations have gotten larger.
We have been looking at a lot of otoliths to determine size at age, but
we have been having trouble reading the otoliths. We can't do much more
with the snakehead until an age at growth relationship can be
established. Also no one has found an active nest site yet.

Jim Cummins: Will your proposed telemetry study be available for next
spawning season

John Odenkirk: Would like to get people out by the end of March to get
jump on spawning season, don't have supplies or man power to do it alone
we would need help.

Bob Lunsford: What is your confidence level of being able to get adults
if the money became available?

John Odenkirk: Very high

Bob Lunsford: We need to discuss sampling techniques and what types are
being successful because we are not having a lot of luck.

Jim Gilmore: Is this all boat shocking?

John Odenkirk: Yes, except for the freak event with high rainfall at
Dogue Creek.

Jim Gilmore: Is this plan going to include sampling techniques?

Steve Minkkinen: Absolutely.

Steve Minkkinen: Spoke on the goals and objectives of the SCMP.

1.  control measures for established populations

> rapid response, impacts (biological and economic) assessment,
> controlling spread, population assessment and management, innovative
> control measures, human factors, enforcement

2.  National Prevention strategy

> Prevention, early detection and rapid response, control, eradication,
> control, research and outreach measures
>
> Law enforcement: sources, introductions, legal actions (local and
> federal), enforcement concepts for prevention

Lunch Break

At this point in time the meeting became a group discussion and in an
effort to save time, only the general ideas presented by the committee
in relation to the different aspects of the plan have been recorded.

**Preventing New Introductions**

Increasing public outreach and education

Enforcement and penalties. Need to address issues related to importation
and relocation. Ports of entry, tariff codes, setting sampling
priorities

Setting similar regulations between jurisdictions

**Early detection/Rapid Response**

Incorporate the law to allow for eradication of reported populations on
private property

Educate the public and fellow biologists about the appearance of
snakeheads, so that one can be reported immediately when found

Can modify commercial permits so that anyone who catches a snakehead is
allowed to posses if killed, and reported to proper management authority

Same with public, only report if required by management authority

Protocol to report found or suspected snakehead to adjoining
jurisdictions so that both can respond

One contact for each state, (or a central database nationally) that is
to include id, directory, latest research, and state regulations, notify
all states within drainage basin, report methods of stocking

Central repository to facilitate sharing of information

AFS symposium to compile scientific information pertaining to snakeheads

Share successful collection methods

Wherever possible, newly discovered populations of snakeheads should be
quarantined and eradicated as determined by local fisheries management
entity, notify other jurisdictions where appropriate to establish a
response.

Each jurisdiction should promulgate legislation to allow jurisdictions
to address new found occurrences of snakeheads on public and private
property and inter jurisdictional habitats.

Recommendation of funds on every level to be allotted for the ability of
rapid response

Knowledge of what permits will be required and what safety protocol will
need to be followed to perform a rapid response for the eradication of
snakehead

Recommend that local management agencies have a plan to respond if
snakehead found

Identify trained and qualified individuals in jurisdictions to respond
to areas of newly infected areas.

Descriptions of current introductions and responses to them (Crofton
etc)

**Management/Control/Eradication**

Attempt to eradicate where appropriate control where you cannot,
appropriateness is to be determined by local fisheries management

Quarantine

Research-life history, biology, behavior

Evaluate methods of eradication as to be determined by location

Target nesting adults to lower survivability of juvenile fish

Can quarantine area where snakeheads are found, so that access by public
is restricted

Explore the idea/strategy of using commercial/recreational angler to
help control of large populations, and leave the decision up to the
management authority

**Research**

Use AFS to hold symposiums, publish and collect scientific findings

Use biological research to determine vulnerability of snakehead during
life cycle

Research is the driving control for sound scientifically directed
management

Determine impacts on pre-existing ecosystems

Determine impacts on economy

Captive populations for research

Food habits

Biological control

Life history

Migration

Spawning/Reproductive/seasonal habits

Histology

Pathology

Collection techniques

Parasites

Day 2.

Snakehead Meeting Plan

Feb. 16 2005

Steve Minkkinen: Yesterday after the meeting Julie and I sat down and
compared out notes and came up with a few goal statements from what was
discussed yesterday.

Through science based management, prevent introductions of northern
snakehead into new areas and minimize impacts in areas where they are
already established

Use sound science and management practices to prevent introductions of
northern snakehead and to minimize the impacts on the nation's aquatic
resources

Protect aquatic resources of the United States and to provide
information to prevent introductions and minimize impacts and encourage
sound science

Protect aquatic resource of the United States and provide scientific
information to prevent introduction and minimize negative impacts

After some round table discussion the group decided on the following as
the goal statement:

Use sound science and management to prevent the introduction of northern
snakehead into new areas of the United States and minimize impacts in
areas where they are already established.

Steve Minkkinen: I talked to Ken this morning and he is not going to be
able to make it today, however he has given me a video of a Law
Enforcement operation in California and a presentation that outlines the
issues of law enforcement and the introduction and importation of
snakeheads.

Steve: This is a video of enforcement action targeting illegal
importation of live snakeheads for the food trade video.

Steve Minkkinen: There are currently three federal laws that prohibit
the transportation of snakeheads, the main one being the Lacey Act and
another two that deal with the importation of snakeheads. There are
several concerns that have arisen in the Law Enforcement community with
regards to snakeheads. This slide lists some of the enforcement concerns
the first one being that recent U.S. immigrants prefer food fish
commonly found in their country thereby creating a motive for snakehead
introductions. Unsubstantiated information exists that the introductions
of snakeheads was a result of creating a "local supply" for the Asian
live food fish trade. Another concern is that the increased awareness
and recent interest in fishing for snakeheads on the Potomac by the
local Asian population is now a source for northern snakeheads which
could possibly lead to future introductions in other water bodies. It is
the recommendation of Law Enforcement that states should consider
banning all snakehead species. Some states prohibit the possession of
only those snakehead species that could become established in their
waters. Snakehead species legally allowed to be possessed in one state
could be shipped in interstate commerce to a state where biologically
they could become a viable "introduced" population. For example, the
possession of striped snakeheads shipped in interstate commerce from a
Northern state and introduced in a southern state. The Law Enforcement
division also gave us some numbers of snakehead importations from
October of 2002 to February of 2006, during this time there were one
hundred and seventy five Giant snakeheads, six Dwarf snakeheads, five
Northern snakeheads, and nine hundred and twelve species of the Channa
genus still under investigation. These numbers are from ten illegally
imported shipments that include the ports of LA (6), SP (1), NY (1),
Atlanta (1), and San Francisco (1). I believe the country of illegal
exportations is rather interesting, Nigeria has exported seven hundred
fish of the Parachanna genus, where as Thailand has exported two hundred
and three, Indonesia has exported one hundred and seventy, China has
exported twenty, and Korea has exported five. It is believed that in the
metro D.C. area the striped snakehead is preferred by Vietnamese and
Thai immigrants, and northern snakeheads are preferred by Chinese and
Korean immigrants.

Amount of penalties - could fines go to the enforcement agencies for
increased enforcement

Fish intended for human consumption are exempt from FWS inspectors

Customs and homeland security -- educate staff on snakeheads

Mitten crab penalties-research what they are

Some notes from a subsequent conversation with law enforcement

Potomac

Need consistent regulations between PRFC, VMRC, VDGIF, MD DNR

No possession of live snakeheads

Foreign language posters about possession at access sites

National

There are not enough agents and inspectors

All states should ban possession of all species of snakeheads

**Education/ Outreach**

One area that needs to be targeted are boat ramps, prevent
transportation in live wells

No possession of live snakeheads- They must be immediately beheaded,
gills removed or eviscerated.

Public education, user groups

Jurisdictional strategies

Need to get to the Asian community, find ways to reach different
communities

Media (newspapers, radio stations, general education, and internet)

Jon: small pamphlets for hospitals and emergency rooms to get them to
identify parasites/illness found in humans as result

Human health in general, post signs in hospitals, publicize parasite
load

Increase inter agency communication police to biologists

Stewardship

Licensing and Distribution, place things there, methods of death,
consumption advisory

Creation of universal pamphlet and mass mailing program by management
org. that has funds to provide

Displays at cultural festivals

Need for liaison, some way of communicating to different ethnicities

Idea for trifold that describes 1) stewardship, health issues,
enforcement

State and federal regulations

**Information Access/Data Management**

Use central webpage/listserv to give access to other management
organizations, USGS?

Need of listserv to send out mass email when addition or posting is made
to central database hub

Regulations

Law Enforcement to notify management of possible snakehead find, without
having to compromise case, so that proactive sampling could be done in
the area to try and control spread

National directory for snakehead contacts in each state,

Steve: directories do not get updated constantly enough

Using Law Enforcement to determine hot spots where imports to alert
those custom agents in that area, and fish management authority in
surrounding area

Control measures for established populations

Immediate research needs

Does national strategy cover the all the issues raised in current
introductions

Angler removal

Commercial fishing

PRFC message about killing snakeheads encountered

Discussion of working draft

Julie Thompson will put together everything that was discussed in this
meeting and emails to discuss the document and can decide if another
face to face meeting.

Email and conference calls can be done, call out for additional members,
thinks it would be good for a one day meeting, and have draft sent out
before meeting, look at website where updates and process will be
presented, timeline needed, need dollar sign to present to Congress

Task for Bob Lunsford: To coordinate discussion between MDNR, VDGIF,
VMRC, and PRFC to discuss the pros/cons of incentives, idea of getting
out of work waterman to harvest snakeheads

Spring 2006 Potomac sampling

Telemetry

Floy tagging

Releasing fish alive- how many should be released?

Methodology

Potential funding for telemetry studies