MonsterFish

 

Simon Fraser University biology grad student Michael Beakes is seen earlier this year with a snakehead fish caught in a lagoon east of Vancouver. The school is doing an analysis of the fish.

Photo: Dixon Tam/Simon Fraser University

 

 In January and February alone, over ten thousand kilograms of live Asian carp, an invasive fish specimen were seized at the Windsor, Ontario border.
 
"This is high on the radar screen for concern", according to Becky Cudmore, senior science advisor on aquatic invasive species, Department of Fisheries and Oceans.  "We want to remain on the front end of an invasion.  We want to prevent them from reaching Canadian waters."  But they're on their way.  Thanks to a lot of unscrupulous people who really don't care about the sanctity of preserving native species and the threat to them of an influx of foreign invaders.

This month a Toronto-area pet shop owner earned himself a fine of tens of thousands of dollars.  And if that isn't penalty enough, he was ordered in addition to spend 60 days in jail, twice over.  This followed a co-operative effort between the U.S. and Canada called Operation Serpent in the illegal export and sale of snakeheads from Ontario into New York state. 

Ontario had banned the sale and possession of snakeheads and other similar fish species several years ago. In British Columbia, officials with the environment ministry - where it is known through surveys that snakeheads are available for sale at some pet stores and food markets - are working on similar regulations to be brought into law.

"Considering the potential danger they pose to local ecosystems, it remains our priority to institute a regulatory ban as soon as possible", ministry spokesman Stuart Bertrand remarked.  After the capture of a half-metre-long snakehead this spring in a pond east of Vancouver, the province was spurred to action. 

At the federal level officials are working to amend the Fisheries Act to include a ban on the importation and inter-provincial transport of "high-risk" invasive fish species, such as the snakehead.
These fish are known to be able to survive out of water for periods of time; they can also travel over ground from one water source to another.  And they are large enough and rapacious enough to pose as a threat to, for example, small vulnerable pets.

South of the border reproducing snakehead populations can be found in Maryland and Florida.  "When they become established in larger river systems and larger bodies of water, they are extremely aggressive fish, a voracious predator", explained Neil Mendelsohn, acting special agent in charge of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service northeast region.

That Toronto pet-shop owner?  Well, according to New York State Court records, he sent to an uncover agent a UPS shipment containing 26 giant snakeheads.  That same agent was sold an additional 154 snakeheads directly at the store.  Where the owner confided to the undercover agent that he doesn't care to keep the snakeheads in the store since he would get in trouble should Environment Canada officials ever show up.

So now Jim Ip must pay over $90,000 in fines for violation of federal and provincial regulations.  Along with two consecutive 60-day jail terms.  What does he think of the law catching up to his illegal activities?

No comment.