Snakeheads may be wreaking ecological harm, after all

[Jamie Carracher]

https://www.bayjournal.com/article/snakeheads_may_be_wreaking_ecological_harm_after_all

Some disagreement about the impact of snakeheads between experts from MD and VA. 

[Gregg DiSalvo]

I'll let Andrew chime in as we were discussing this piece a few days ago after he shared it with me, but my initial thought was that it's odd to recognize how we all may have jumped to conclusions too early and then turn around to fan the flames of early conclusions without looking at all environmental variable again...

Additionally, they should probably look at the other factors that they brushed over instead of just focusing on the snakehead...

[N Elgas]

I tend to biasedly side with VA on much of this stuff as i  think that MD tends to be slower to lessen restrictions and quicker to waive the panic flag.  For better or worse.  I also think Odenkirk puts in the time and research before commenting on findings.  If i recall correctly MD went nuclear on Snakehaeads in 2010,  and even though VA soon followed suit, Virginia was much quicker to make changes based on the data to lift the kill order and has seemed to be much more open with the possiblity that we might have lucked out,  and we better learn to live with them anyway.  I read much of what was available from the SH Symposium last year and one thing we don't have is a lack of data and research.  Letting their quotes get published with so many what ifs just seems slightly irresponsible given the media response that has followed these fish.  

On Thursday, July 11, 2019 at 9:05:07 AM UTC-4, Jamie Carracher wrote:

[John Hammill]

I’m just grateful that we don’t have Nile Monitors, Burmese Pythons, and Armored Catfish.

Thanks for the enlightening and reasonable thread, gentleman!

Sent from my iPhone

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[Andrew Sarcinello]

Yeah, the headline isn't really supported by what is said in the article.  I'm not absolving snakeheads of anything just yet, but the discussion in the article brought up two things that could have negatively impacted fish populations at Blackwater even if it was snakehead free: 

1.) At some point (article doesn't say when), a dam was installed to block saltwater intrusion. Then they blame the decline in yellow and white perch on snakeheads, but it seems like loss of ability to freely migrate would have a pretty big impact.

2.) The biologists for MDNR admit that low oxygen levels the previous year probably killed a lot of fish of many species. So they're saying "Here's a major, obvious cause of fish mortality that wasn't snakeheads, but we're going to go ahead and blame them anyway."

I don't think enough time has passed to definitively say that snakeheads aren't having negative impacts, but the article failed to bring any sound evidence to make me think snakeheads are "wreaking havoc".