The snakehead above is not the one that was supposedly spotted in Central Park, but it’s probably a cousin from the underworld. Photo via Simon Fraser University.
Lock up the women and children! Take the pooch out for one final walk! Run to Trader Joe’s and buy all of the frozen pad thai! Because the demonic northern snakehead has allegedly been spotted in Central Park, and it’s not happpppyyyyy.
“The snakehead is a relentless and efficient predator that devours just about everything in its path — fish, frogs, crayfish, beetles and aquatic insects. And it does not meet death easily; it is able to survive under ice or live on land for days in damp conditions. It has been called Fishzilla,” says the New York Times.
In the past couple of weeks, the half-fish half-snake beast has apparently been spotted at the Harlem Meer, the man-made lake in the Northeast corner of the park. Signs have gone up in the past few days advising fishermen not to throw the fish back in the lake, but instead to contact the authorities immediately. Because this fish is big, and it’s bad, and it’s a non-native invasive species that can decimate the local ecology. Someone may have placed snakeheads in the lake hoping they would breed and they could catch and sell them. Some people eat snakeheads (it even made it on the menu at Gramercy Tavern last year) and claim they have medicinal properties. Authorities have caught people trying to spread snakeheads into local waters in the past. A snakehead was last seen in the Meer in 2008.
For the next few days, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation will be surveying the water with special electrical equipment that stuns fish to see if there are in fact snakeheads there, or if these are just some tall tales told by fishermen. If they find they fish, they don’t plan to eradicate it. Rather, they plan to monitor the fish. (Um, anyone else okay with some sort of forced removal?…When contacted by West Side Rag, the snakehead said: “You can’t kick me out. I’m rent-stabilized.”)
No seriously, stay away from this thing! And watch the video below, via NBC News.
I guess instead of central park we will have to trudge through the trash in riverside.
Re: “…efficient predator that devours just about everything in its path — fish, frogs, crayfish, beetles and aquatic insects.”
YIKES !! Rats ALSO ?
Not rats! Cause … ummm…we taste terrible!?! … We’re poisonous ?!? … We’re cute !!!
Can snakeheads get down here into the subway tunnel?
:-0