New York authorities are grappling with the alarming discovery in a city lake of Asian snakehead fish that are known to eat every other fish it comes across
Biologists with New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation were doing a routine sampling of the fish in the 93-acre Meadow Lake in the borough of Queens when they
easily caught five of the northern snakehead fish, including one 28 inches long.
"They are top predators," said biologist James Gilmore. "They will out-compete other native fish for food
and dominate the lake."
Gilmore told The New York Times his initial task was to determine how severe the infestation is.
The fish gained national attention when they were found in a Maryland pond in 2002. Officials there determined the only way to contain them was to poison the entire pond.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton has called them "something from a bad horror movie" and ordered a federal ban on their importation or release.
