Invasive Northern Snakehead Fish Identified in Georgia

A new species of fish that can breath air has invaded Georgia waters and now the Department of Natural Resources is telling anglers, “if you see it, kill it.”

It’s called the Northern Snakehead and last week, an angler reported catching a northern snakehead in a pond located on private property in Gwinnett County.

Northern Snakeheads are native to Russia and China.

Scott Robinson is the Fisheries Operations Manager for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division.

Robinson said they were likely brought to the U.S. via the aquatic trade or the food trade.  He says this is the first time this fish species has been confirmed in Georgia waters.

“We’re concerned about their impact on native fish populations, because they’re very prolific,” Robinson said. “A female can lay up to 100,000 eggs each year. So they will compete with our native fish, large mouth bass, crappie, trout, blue gill, all the fish people like to catch. They will compete with those fish for food and space and they also like to eat those fish.”

And they are extremely hearty.  A Northern Snakehead can grow up to three feet long, and remain out of the water for up to four days breathing air.

They can also live in low-oxygenated waters, which means they can survive in warm waters in the summer when fish, like bass can’t.

Snakeheads could pose a real threat to the fish populations in Hartwell Lake and our local streams and rivers.

Local bass tournaments and trout tournaments bring in thousands of dollars in economic revenue to Northeast Georgia every year and an invasion of snakeheads could decimate both the bass and trout populations.

Robinson said in the Gwinnett pond they found one adult and four juveniles further downstream in a marsh.

He says if you think you’ve caught a snakehead, don’t throw it back.

“Find the contact information for your nearest fisheries biologist. Give us a call we’ll be glad to help you identify the fish. If it is a snakehead then we would want to make sure that fish is killed and not returned to the water and do a similar search for other snakeheads in that area,” he said.

For more information about the northern snakehead, or other aquatic nuisance species, visit https://georgiawildlife.com/aquatic-nuisance-species.

To get the fact sheet on the northern snakehead, you can download the pdf at: Northern Snakehead Fact Sheet