4 Introduction Flopping Fish The pond water churned The net came down The snakehead fish splashed and darted But they were trapped A man dragged them up the bank He had been told owning the fish would be illegal soon He dumped the fish on the grass He left them to die in the sun But the snakehead fish had other plans They breathed the warm air They wiggled down the hill They slipped into a ditch with water in it And they escaped into the White River
5 TWS TATULA R 100SHL YL SD HI POWER
Chapter 1 A Sprinkle of Snakeheads Snakehead fish are invasive They are not native to the United States There are about 30 species of snakehead fish in the world Most are from China and Korea They have big mouths They have sharp teeth They have flat heads Their heads have scales They have long bodies They look like snakes Snakes with fins The most common species in the US is the northern snakehead 6 People began seeing these fish in 1997. They found one in a lake in California They wondered if someone let it go They wondered if it snuck in on its own Maybe through a man made canal A California canal
A DISH OF FISH In 2002 the Lacey Act banned snakehead fish People could not bring the fish into the US It banned people from buying snakeheads Before then people sold these fish in pet stores They sold them in live food markets They sold them on the internet Some restaurants served snakehead fish as a special dish 7
