Snakeheads. Available?

Open Water Predator

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Feb 13, 2003
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I have a long running love affair with the snakehead familiy. Does anyone know if it's still possible to get them. Seems like I read something about a bill being passed outlawing them because some idiot let one go in a Michigan lake and w/in 2 yrs. it had decimated the lake. Come to think of it, I haven't seen any in the pet stores lately either.
Anyone?
 
??

i was gonna ask the same question:(
 
Buying one out of country and importing it into the States is illegal. If you are caught, the fish will be destroyed. If you currently have one, it will not be able to legally cross the state lines (Lacey Act violation). This means you will need to find it a home or kill it is you ever move to another state.
 
Rather than blame the F&WS, or the lawmakers, blame the irresponsible idiots that released these guys into the wild to begin with. It wasn't hobbyists, it was people who imported them for food, and released them. I agree it's frustrating, but don't blame the lawmakers, blame the people who can't do the responsible thing without the force of law behind it.

Rather than make enforcement determine the difference between the species, they ban them all to prevent confusion and illegal 'mistakes'. Trying to protect wildlife is not a fun line to walk. Between the politics and the mis-informed but demanding public, science frequently gets lost in the shuffle. This is one time when the science actually was the driving force behind the legislation.
 
But instead of banning them, how about banning their sale for food? (since that was what started the problem)
Or, make them registered - put a chip in them, and make the person pay a small fee. (c'mon - government loves this kinda stuff!) Then if a fish turns up loose, just fine the heck outta the person!
You can do this with cats/dogs very easily and for not very much. If your pet gets lost the vet just scans their neck with a reader to get the number on the chip, and pulls up the info on a network.
I think they also do this with Asian Arowanna, since they are CITES protected. The chip is registered and confirms that the fish was captive-bred and legal for you to have.
 
The problem is twofold: determining which species the fish belongs to, especially when they are fingerling/fry/eggs, and funding the process. It's not easy, and implementation won't be cheap. There's no way to implant a chip of any kind into fry and eggs, which means you're then increasing the costs and labor for the suppliers, since they have to raise the fish and feed them longer. The costs would shoot through the roof, reducing demand even lower. The numbers imported were ridiculously low, for the combined food, research and hobbyist industries. So how many hobbyists are really being denied something they wanted in the first place? This proposed legislation was very well published, and yet there were only a few people who submitted any sort of comment.

It's not like laws just magically appear. They are proposed, studied, published, discussed, and then voted on by the people elected to represent all of us. If a law makes it in that you disagree with, ask yourself if you did anything to impact the decisions one way or another. If you didn't, blaming the law makers is silly.
 
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