B.C. introduces $250,000 fine for releasing Asia’s destructive ‘Frankenfish’

Tristin Hopper | Dec 20, 2012 6:58 PM ET | Last Updated: Dec 20, 2012 7:01 PM ET
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Nick Procaylo / Postmedia News Files Officials with the snakehead fish — also known as the 'frankenfish' — captured from Burnaby's Central Lake pond in Burnaby, B.C. on June 9, 2012. A top-level predator, the snakehead can slither from pond to pond.

 

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Releasing a snakehead — the so-called “Frankenfish” capable of walking on land and eating small ducks — now carries a fine of $250,000, according to new invasive species laws drawn up by the Province of B.C.

Previously, states a Thursday press release, B.C.’s “alien species” laws were largely meant to keep out animals that posed an overt threat to British Columbians, “such as tigers.”

The recent changes reflect a ”previous commitment to ban the snakehead fish.” The changes were spurred by a May YouTube video that showed a snakehead fish in a Vancouver-area pond.

Nick Procaylo / Postmedia News Files    While on land, snakehead fish have been known to prey on small mammals. 

 

Native to China and Russia, the meter-long fish is capable of crawling on land, placing no limit on the number of lakes that see their marine life wiped out can by the snakehead’s ravenous appetite.
The snakehead purportedly featured in the video was killed in June after officials drained the Burnaby pond it inhabited.

Wildlife experts suspect the fish may have been placed there as a result of a Buddhist practice of releasing live seafood for good luck.

At the time of the sighting, live snakehead were widely available at Vancouver Asian markets.

Related

• ‘Frankenfish’ caught after weeks-long search of B.C. pond
• Frankenfish: terrorizing the people of B.C.
• Biologists investigating after possible ‘Frankenfish’ sighting in B.C. pond