Snakehead Essay

If the snakehead becomes established in a body of water it can disrupt the ecosystems predator-prey balance. the have been two accounts of stable breeding populations of Snakehead in both Florida and California, where the climate is warm enough for the Snakeheads to thrive once they are there. Individual Snakeheads have been caught all over the United states, including states as Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Hawaii. The founding in Hawaii is especially troublesome, since Hawaii is already burdened with the plague of numerous other invasive species that threaten to eradicate the flora and fauna of the island. Australia is another warning example that tells us how severe the impact of just a few invasive species can be to an ecosystem

Even if the effects have not been as severe as on Hawaii or Australia, the United States mainland has in no way been blessed from problems invasive species throughout history. (Saylor et al 2012) The snakehead can instinctively move to a new body of water through waterway connections or across land once food becomes scarce which puts all waters at risk for invasion. There is always the potential of a new species to bring with it new diseases and parasites and the same is true for any species of snakehead. The snakehead puts all of our endangered species of amphibians, fishes and crustaceans at risk of extinction. There does not need to be a large population of snakeheads to become a problem, even just one snakehead poses a threat because of its voracious feeding behavior. There is also a threat to humans. they have been known to attack humans when someone approaches a snakeheads nest or young. (Holt, L.

Their research will include expansive field testing that compares the efficacy of these newly derived poisons to that of rotenone as well as other control techniques such as electro-shocking and netting. Schwartz says that his research should pose little threat to surrounding populations because rotenone decomposes in sunlight and is also inherently less toxic to humans and other mammals.From these field experiments, Schwartz hopes to assemble data on how each of the new plant-based toxins compares to rotenone in terms of both snakehead mortality as well as the effect on the native fish populations. Ideally, one of the tested poisons would retain the same high lethality towards the snakehead as rotenone, but would cause much less collateral damage to the native species. Yet, this is unlikely and so a more realistic outcome would be to find a plant based poison with both positive and negative effects similar to rotenone that can be more cheaply produced. This would allow for the broader implementation of