SNAKEHEAD: A FISH OUT OF WATER. Eric Jay Dolan. 2003. Smithsonian Books, Washington, DC. ISBN 1-58834-154-2. 266 p. $24.95 (cloth).—No fish invasion in the United States has received more intense media attention than that of the Northern Snakehead (Channa argus) into a Maryland pond. Snakeheads were introduced by a man who had purchased a couple as food from an Asian market in New York and then changed his mind about turning them into soup. By the time they were discovered about two years later by an angler (May 2002), the fish had grown large and reproduced. For a variety of reasons, including the evil-sounding name and the need for sensational stories during summer months, the snakehead provoked an amazing media frenzy around the pond. The frenzy lasted until the population was eradicated in August. Snakeheads were generally portrayed as savage carnivores that could move across land, from lake...

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