Crofton, Md.
The ravenous Chinese fish threatening Maryland’s marine life are refugees from a soup pot, investigators said this week. Biologists tracked down a man who admitted dumping two Chinese Northern Snakeheads into a Crofton pond. Snakeheads are prized in China for their flavor and healing properties, so the man ordered the pair two years ago from a New York fish market to make soup for his ailing sister; she was better by the time they arrived. The toothy fish eat a wide variety of marine life, and can breathe air and crawl over land on their fins to search out new prey. State officials fear the fish and their progeny could escape the pond, and wipe out native fish and frogs in nearby rivers.
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