The Northern Snakehead

The Northern Snakehead is an invasive and deadly fish. This fish is an apex predator in most of Virginia’s ecosystems. It appears in so many lakes, ponds, lakes, rivers, and creeks around the area because they can travel on land. Yes, they can travel on land. In fact they can stay up to 3 days out of water and they can travel up to 1/2 of a mile. They were discovered hundreds of years ago in parts of Asia. In 2002 a fisherman caught one in a pond in Maryland and they somehow moved to invade Virginia. Snakeheads have a long dorsal fin and a small depressed head with eyes on the side of its head and razor sharp teeth. The biggest Snakehead ever caught was caught by a man from Virginia in 2016. The Snakehead is 18.42 lb. If you were to ever catch catch a Northern Snakehead, you can choose to release it or kill it. You can kill it because it is an invasive fish and they are edible and from what I’ve heard they taste really good.

This fish was engineered to be the apex predator. They have a snake like print as there skin to disguise them from big predators on land and blend in with leaves and mucky water. They have a long dorsal fin that helps them move very fast in the water when there hunting prey. And they have a very powerful jaw so when it bites down on a fish it is sure to break of a piece of it.