I watched a special report on one of the Canadian TV channels  about something called: Snakehead fish, aka Frankenfish, or the ‘Fishzilla’, as National Geographic referred to it. The monster fish was spotted earlier in May in Burnaby Central Park by locals, and the never-ending hunting attempts to rid the pond of it started immediately.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To be honest, I’ve never heard of it before until that day, and I was curious to know more, so I kept watching; turns out this fish is considered a highly invasive predator, a  threat to the ecosystem, and would basically eat anything that fits in its mouth. So it feeds on frogs and other fish and would even eat small mammals.

“Snakeheads are considered highly invasive, can grow to a metre in length and have rows of pointy teeth. They are reported to have wiped out native fish stocks in parts of the U.S. The snakefish is said toeat frogs, birds and even small pets….. The fish also has a primitive lung system that allows it to stay out of water for extended periods and move between bodies of water.” CBC News
“They can reproduce multiple times per year…They can double their population size within 15 months.” CBC News

The fish was caught by biologists around two weeks ago,  after they partially drained a pond in Burnaby’s Central Park, in British Columbia,  following previous unsuccessful attempts.
Terry Lake, Minister of Environment, vowed to change provincial regulations by the fall to ban its live importation.  

Apparently another similar incident occurred back in 2004, resulting in draining another lake completely and not partially, which literally cost billions of dollars, besides the death of so many aquatic species: ”It’s a potentially costly problem jurisdictions south of the border have already dealt with; a lake in Maryland had to be drained and re-stocked because of a snakehead infestation in 2004. Two years earlier, another pond had to be poisoned to eradicate the fish.” CTV News
So instead of wasting all that time, money, and effort chasing the fish, and instead of putting the whole ecosystem at risk, I do believe it’s indeed about time the importation of live snakehead fish be prohibited in all of Canada. The good news is, the man who’s believed to be behind the presence of this invasive species in Canadian waters is found, he’s  a Toronto pet dealer and was busted selling the Fishzilla to an undercover U.S Fish & Wildlife Service Agent. The 49-year-old man is now facing federal felony charges in the U.S. and Canada. He was arrested and charged in Canada and given an August court date. Officials are working to transport the smuggler back to the states to face his charges. He is currently not in Canadian custody.