It has no fins, it has almost no characteristics at all. It's like a big slimy worm with two tiny little eyes and kind of a v-shaped mouth. They can come here and then once they become established, they're taking advantage of resources in a way that hasn't been designed as part of the ecosystem. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment.
Scientists are concerned about a new predator invading Florida.
Called the Asian Swamp Eel, it has no known enemies, and efforts at controlling it have failed. Some school kids apparently went to this nature center all the time and would dip for fish, and they were catching these things like crazy. And nobody knew what they were. The swamp Eel is a predator that may survive better in Florida's swamps than Florida's natural swamp wildlife. It showed up near Tampa in a greatly modified river.