Tropical Snakehead caught by angler in UK River !!

You're right there,
It was the Leicester Canal at a hot-water outlet from a coal-fired power station, the water having been taken from another 'pound', run through the power plant for cooling purposes and then returned at this section.
Someone had put Cichlids in, from the picture shown at the time in the 'Angling Times' they appeared to be some sort of Haplochromine...I remember that for a good while afterwards winter matches along this stretch were almost always won with Cichlid catches.
I had visions of driving up there to collect some but it never happened! I think there was another Tropical species in there too but for the life of me cannot remember what it was.

Around this time there was a similar power station along the banks of the River Lea but it was semi-redundant, the water still went through it but as the generating unit was not working any longer the water was as cold when it came out as when it went in...apart from one Sunday, we turned up to fish in a competition at Broxbourne on a really freezing morning and there was steam rising from the river - the power generator had had to be turned on again as the 'newer' replacement one couldn't cope with the demand for electricity on such a cold and frosty weekend! It was fantastic to stand in the warm water and fish - everyone caught good bags too that day, where we hadn't expected even a bite!

But, that report, if true, (well it was in Practical Fishkeeping magazine!), seems a good bit more sinister. This was a warm-water Tropical Snakehead having been caught in the River Witham in Lincolnshire and I wouldn't put that county down as being one of the warmest in England, the Easterly winds come straight off the North Sea and - there are no hills and very few trees in Lincolnshire to deflect them!
I wonder if it was a case of a bit of a hoax? - If someone had a dead Snakehead, it would make a great story to have claimed to have caught it in a UK river, especially with the furore currently raging over them.
There is a type of crustacean - an exotic Crab, I think, from the Far East which has been introduced into the lower River Lea and it is thriving and causing complete havoc, likewise with the Signal Crayfish - which it would appear is wiping out the native Crayfish species as well.
Many waterways in England are becoming choked completely by Water Hyacinth, originally introduced for garden ponds, but the Snakehead tale, if true, could be the most sinister of all.
I expect they'll be put onto some sort of list of banned species...the UK is great at making all sorts of legislation in blind panic to regret and repeal at a later date!!!

Just quickly; there was a case over here of (not an exotic species by any means) Chub having been introduced into the River Inny. And right well they were doing too...until the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board discovered them!!! Then it was a case of \"out with the electro-fishing apparatus\" and they were boasting of how they had eradicated them all...well, I think not all were killed off, at least I hope not anyway!
Likewise I know of two instances of Wels Catfish having been caught in a Lough in Cavan, the second one was caught in a Fishing Competition, weighed and returned.

But back to the Snakeheads, a Tropical Fish like that should never live in English rivers, the winter temperatures would not be at all to their liking!

John

I come to this hobby of fishfeeping from an angling background and have heard of tales of visiting anglers bring live baits to our waterways that are not native. But last year I witnessed it, where a guy, when finished his day/weekends fishing dumped his stock of baits in the water. I did approach him and needless to say I was told where to go. I did report it and his car reg number to the fishery board but heard nothing.

Live Bait Fishing is ILLEGAL (not to mention immoral) in Ireland...there was a case last year of a VERY prominent UK Pike angler allegedly being stopped at Holyhead with a trailer-load of small carp for use as livebait...
Most Irish Fishery Boards will do nothing to upset 'visitors', no matter what they get up to, look at the bin-bags full of fish being taken from our waters every weekend by Eastern European 'anglers' (fishmongers, more like!!!), they are left unchallenges too. Before this started up, we had to contend with German and Dutch 'anglers' pillaging our Pike stocks - this still goes on, I was talking with a man vaguely connected with the Guinness (Emerald Star Line) crowd in Portumna and some of the tales he had to tell of Pike corpses was quite terrifying!

It's so important to keep these alien species out of our waterways.

OK, but where do you draw the line? - Most of the 'indigenous' species are introduced at some point - I think the only true species in Ireland were Trout, Char, Pollan, eels for their freshwater incarnations, Salmon, Burbot and Sturgeon...oh yes, and Sticklebacks. All the rest are aliens at some point or another...what do we do? - Surely not wipe out everything else on the basis that they are 'Aliens'?
Roach are a perfect example of Aliens, they were only found in the Bann N. Ireland and in the Blackwater down South, both lots - incidentally stocked from (allegedly) English live bait anglers' 'leftovers'.
However, with the formation - for the benefit of boat owners etc - of the canal linking the Erne system to the Shannon waterway the Roach flooded down here!!!. And with the influx of the Roach came the decline, at least around Portumna way of Bream and Rudd! I even caught Dace in the lower Shannon, these must have been 'imported' from the shoals in the Blackwater around Cappoquin?
Now in Ireland the most recent commercial fishery development is for carp stocked fisheries, I can tell you here and now, introducing carp into Irish lakes, rivers and Canals will prove disatrous in the fullness of time. In the South of England now carp have proved the ruination of almost every waterway there...carp and cormorants between them! - I'm not going to get started about the latter...just wait and see!
Strangely enough the Zebra Mussel after introduction into the Shannon system flourished and has made the water clearer and far less polluted, I think I am right in saying that some of the Great Lakes of the USA were SO badly polluted that nothing could live in their water...but after the introduction of the Zebra Mussels they now sustain all aquatic life again.

is it illegal to sell snakeheads??

I'm not sure it is yet, but with all this paranoia I think it will be soon enough...and expect more species to follow...doubtless someone from an LFS can elaborate?

Sorry, I've \"gone on\" a bit (again!!!).

John

Maggie,
You asked Tony (surely not Chelsea FC?) specifically for his answer but I couldn't leave your question without adding my ten penn'orth.

I, and I suspect a lot more Forum members, fish - and get a huge amount of pleasure from so doing. The two things, Angling and Fishkeeping, are as about as far removed from one another as could be. The only 'common denominators' being people and fish.
Unless any are taken to be eaten I always return all of my captures alive, and in most cases, none the worse for their having been caught.
I'll not bore you with proven reasons why fish (coldwater, especially) do not suffer from this - unless you ask, of course.

However, I would never try to change the views of a non-angler, trying to convert him/her to become an angler - it's everyone's choice - but by the same token I wouldn't expect anyone to be lecturing me to stop either.
I don't think that's actually in your mind to do but I felt it better said than left unsaid.

John