Massachusetts Man Catches Strange Invasive Fish That Moves on Land, Breathes Air

A Massachusetts gentleman snagged a rarely caught invasive fish on Friday that has a weird capability to breathe exterior of water.

Michael Powell was attempting to catch bass on Reservoir Pond, south of Boston, with a good friend on Friday afternoon, when he felt something tugging on his line at about 4 p.m.

But the fish was not a bass like Powell was hoping. Alternatively, it turned out to be a northern snakehead fish, known scientifically as Channa argus.

“I fished my entire daily life, so I form of knew what to do and I understood it was not a fish that was portion of this spot,” Powell informed Boston.com. “As soon as I got it on the boat, I mentioned ‘holy sh*t, this is a snakehead fish.'”

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Provider (FWS), northern snakehead fish have long, slender bodies with a characteristic head coated in huge scales that seems to be almost snake-like, as the name indicates.

The fish has a big mouth with sharp enamel and is able of developing to almost four ft in duration, while weighing up to 15 lbs ..

Snakeheads have the unusual ability—among fish at least—to soak up oxygen directly from the air with the help of an air bladder that functions like a primitive lung. This permits them to endure for up to four times out of the h2o, and to prosper in stagnant bodies of h2o, this kind of as swamps, canals and ponds, that consist of very very little oxygen.

The fish can also survive for more time durations out of the h2o if they burrow on their own in moist sediment and lie dormant, which they do in intervals of drought.

The juveniles can journey small distances throughout land by “wiggling” their bodes, enabling them to shift from one entire body of drinking water to one more, if vital, This will become tougher for the fish as they increase older and their very long, slim bodies turn into rounder, in accordance to Countrywide Geographic.

The snakehead caught by Powell calculated 2.5 toes in duration and weighed five pounds. It is really only the fourth fish of this species to have been caught in Massachusetts considering that 2002—the yr that the very first proven populace of C. argus was recognized in the United States in the state of Maryland.

The fish is indigenous to pieces of China, Russia and Korea, but is has now been released to other regions, together with some central Asian nations, portions of jap Europe, Japan and the United States.

Intentional Launch in the U.S.

It is considered that the fish, which is from time to time eaten, was released into the atmosphere in the U.S. by way of intentional release by Asian food importers or by men and women who owned them as pets.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the rapidly-expanding, carnivorous species is now proven in Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Arkansas. A number of specific specimens have also been recognized in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts and North Carolina, but the fish just isn’t regarded to be founded in these states.

The uncommon capabilities of this species to endure in environments where other fish can’t, their different and adaptable diet—which features fish, frogs, crabs, birds and little mammals—and their predatory and aggressive nature, have authorized snakeheads to unfold and adapt to a huge array of habitats.

Environmentalists take into consideration the fish to be a problematic invasive species for the reason that they prey on and outcompete native species for resources, when also potentially carrying parasites.

Powell knew that he had to notify the authorities about his capture and inevitably handed the fish around to Massachusetts state wildlife officials right after keeping it alive for a total night in a property-created tank.

“Did you see the teeth on that point? Consider catching it—I failed to know what the hell to do with it either and I’ve fished my full lifetime,” Powell claimed.

“We had it out of the h2o for two several hours while I was hoping to figure out what to put it in, and as shortly as we set it in the water it allow out a large gulp of air and started off respiration by way of its gills again. I claimed that is it, I never want to see it any longer. It is really doing stuff that fish usually are not meant to do.”