‘Frankenfish’ found in Central Pa. creek, raising concerns

The northern snakehead was found in a creek that flows into the Susquehanna River.

(Undated) — An angler in Lancaster County recently reeled in a 25-inch northern snakehead, which also are referred to as “frankenfish” and “fishzilla,” according to Lancaster Online.

Mark Mabry caught the fish in the Octoraro Creek, which flows into the Susquehanna River, and it marks the first confirmed appearance of the foreign invader in Lancaster County, Lancaster Online reported.

“It was the first one I’d ever seen, but I knew right away what it was,” Mabry told the newspaper.

The northern snakehead is native to China, Russia and Korea and has received the monikers for its “snakelike heads, mouthfuls of sharp teeth, predatory nature and their ability to breathe air,” Lancaster Online says. The first one caught in the United States was in a pond south of Baltimore in 2002.

The northern snakehead has been found in other parts of Pennsylvania, including the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers.

It’s too early to tell how the northern snakehead will impact native fish, such as bass and walleye, fisheries managers told Lancaster Online. But state Fish and Boat Commission officials are concerned.

“We don’t want to see exotics established because they’re not a natural predator, and we don’t want the possibility of diseases they may carry to native fish that are not immune,” Mike Kauffman, area fisheries manager for the Fish and Boat Commission, told the newspaper. “Generally speaking, we don’t like to see new competitors in a system.”

This story comes to us through a partnership between WITF and The York Daily Record.