COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. (AP) - Virginia officials are reporting another finding of an invasive northern snakehead fish.
The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries said in a news release Friday that biologists confirmed the presence of the fish in a Colonial Heights reservoir late last month.
The northern snakehead was first discovered in Virginia in the Potomac River in 2004. The news release says since that time, they’ve been discovered in nine additional bodies of water.
Exotic species like snakeheads can feed on or compete with native fish and transmit parasites and diseases to native wildlife.
The department says most new occurrences of the fish are caused by people intentionally stocking them into new bodies of water. Doing so is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 12 months in jail, a $2,500 fine or both.
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