Capture, genetics, isotopes, and policy consequences of a non-native snakehead in Canada.
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| Authors: | Scott, D., J.W. Moore, L.-M. Herborg, C.C. Murray, and N.R. Serrao. |
| Year: | 2013 |
| Journal: | Management of Biological Invasions. In Press PDF |
| Title: | Capture, genetics, isotopes, and policy consequences of a non-native snakehead in Canada. |
| Abstract: | In June 2012 a single non-native snakehead fish was captured by local officials in a small pond within an urban park in Burnaby, British Columbia. This single snakehead fish garnered significant attention in the local and national media. DNA analysis determined it to be a blotched snakehead (Channa maculata) or possibly a hybrid; a warm water species native to China and Vietnam which is commonly sold in the live food fish trade, and occasionally kept by lobbyists. By collecting prey items from the pond and snakehead specimens from fish markets we used a novel stable isotope approach to estimate how long it had been since the snakehead had been released into the pond. Using a diet-switching tissue turnover model, we estimated that the snakehead was in the pond between 33 and 93 days. Subsequently, provincial legislation was amended to ban all species of snakehead fish, as well as numerous other potentially invasive fish and invertebrate species. |
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