'Frankenfish' and the hunt for invasive species

Tearing across the Potomac in his bass boat, Maryland's top snakehead hunter is on a mission: to bolster his reputation.

Cliff Magnus caught the nastiest keeper of his life this summer, up in the tight tidal channel of Little Hunting Creek, along a row of Washington cottages with their gardens and sea walls. It was a US-record-setting northern snakehead - an invasive species colloquially known as the Frankenfish, or The Fish That Ate Maryland - weighing almost 6 pounds and measuring 25 inches long, nearly 10 inches longer than the escaped fish that stirred America's gothic imagination two years ago.

Since then, snakeheads have slithered not just into the national consciousness, but into Washington's waterways: At least 17 have been caught this summer along a 14-mile stretch of the Potomac, as well as in a Philadelphia pond.

The hunt for Frankenfish has spawned "wanted" posters, a fishing tournament, and small-scale fame for those who've caught them, like Mr. Magnus, a former lumberjack and race-car driver turned professional fisherman, and Tom "Snakehead Slayer" Woo, who's caught three. But beyond the tide of local interest, snakeheads are drawing attention to the proliferation of invasive species mucking up American fauna nationwide.

The problem, say critics, is that not every invader is an enemy, and the fallback pattern of all-out war can muddy the waters still further.

Today, the US spends some $137 billion annually to combat nonnative species from fairy-tale creatures to John Carpenter monsters - including filter-clogging zebra mussels, South American fur rats, and the beautiful but destructive mute swan, which has devastated sea-grass beds on the Chesapeake while bullying native birds. At present, the snakehead is low on this ecological totem-pole, with no real proof of overwhelming damage.

"We're dealing with this never-ending onslaught of new invasive species that accompany the globalization of trade, commerce, and travel," says Jonathan McKnight, an associate director at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. "Right now, the snakehead has become the poster fish, but we need people to make the connection between all invasive species and the real ecological damage that they do."

To be sure, the arrival of foreign species isn't always catastrophic. But biologists are increasingly realizing that some newcomers overwhelm an area's natural balance, devastating natives and transforming ecosystems.

Despite the nation's zero-tolerance alert for invasive species, public perception varies widely, to the consternation of wildlife managers. The homely snakehead has few friends. But animal-rights groups have come to the defense of the mute swan, which 4 out or 5 Marylanders are in favor of forcibly culling, and it may take an act of Congress to change the Migratory Species Act so that wildlife managers can reduce the flocks.

"The snakehead is a science-fiction monster and the mute swan is a fairy-tale creature - you see my dilemma," says Mr. McKnight.

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