Return of the snakehead

last updated 8 January 2015

Wheaton, Md.

The dreaded snakehead, a bizarre predatory fish from Asia, is back. Maryland authorities thought they had eradicated the voracious “Frankenfish,” which created a national sensation in 2002 because of its ability to survive out of water for long stretches and to move on land by propelling itself with its fins. But last week angler Terry Wintermoyer hauled a 3-pound, 19-inch northern snakehead out of Pine Lake in Wheaton, Md. The fish put up such a fight, Wintermoyer said, that he at first assumed it was a 30-pound largemouth bass. But then he took one look at the snakehead’s mouthful of fanglike teeth and notified police. “I hadn’t seen anything like that my whole life,” he said. State wildlife officials promptly drained the lake and concluded that the snakehead was alone.