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Central New York man has to find home for pet snakehead fish or it dies
Thursday, February 12, 2009
By Tom Leo
Staff writer
An Onondaga County man who owns a banned imported fish has been ordered to find a new home for the fish or have it destroyed.
The snakehead fish - which has been illegal to own in the United States since 2004 - has a voracious appetite, often consuming all other fish in a lake or pond, and even eating its young.
The fish, an invasive species originally from Asia, can slither across land, staying out of water for up to three days, to find new sources of food, including small animals.
A pair of snakeheads were released by somebody in a pond in Crofton, Md., in 2002. The pond was treated with chemicals to kill everything in it. Researchers found six adult snakeheads and more than one thousand juvenile fish.
Snakeheads also have infiltrated New York state waters.
In August, the state's Department of Environmental Conservation was forced to treat a lake and creek in Orange County with an aquatic pesticide designed to kill the fish after four snakeheads were found in the water.
Chris Deverso, of Clay, purchased his fish, who he's named Rocky, 10 years ago for $30 from a local pet store when it wasn't illegal to own the fish. He keeps the 28-inch-long fish in a 200-gallon tank at his home at 7424 Muench Road.
Deverso pleaded guilty Tuesday night and was fined $25 for possessing the illegal fish. He now is scrambling to find the fish a legal home. He's contacted zoos and aquariums, including the Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park in Syracuse.
So far, he's had no luck.
Rosamond Gifford Zoo officials told Deverso they can't take the fish because they don't have funding to build a large aquarium to house a single fish. A snakehead would attack any other fish in the tank.
"This fish doesn't deserve to die," Deverso said. "There has to be another solution."
Deverso said the fish that have caused problems in Maryland and other places are a cold-climate type of snakehead that can survive winter months.
"My fish is a giant snakehead species," he said. "It's not a cold-climate temperature fish and could not survive if it was released into a pond."
Federal regulations, however, do not distinguish between different species of snakehead; they're all illegal to possess.
Deverso said some animal organizations from outside the state have extended offers to take in Rocky. One issue is federal transportation laws across state lines.
"Another issueis the fish is 10 years old," he said. "There's a fear the stress of taking him out of the environment he's been in for 10 years and doing a transport would kill him."
State DEC officials said they would wait until Deverso's criminal court proceedings were complete before possibly seizing the fish.
"We realize this fish is this guy's pet and we're sensitive to the situation, trying to work with him as long as he's trying to find a legal home for this thing," said DEC Region 7 Capt. Woody Erickson. "If not, he'll have to surrender it to us or euthanize it himself."
There's no set timetable to seize the fish, Erickson said.
"On the other hand, if there is no home for this thing, we can't continue this on forever," he said. "We'd like to work this out within the next two weeks."
Thursday, February 12, 2009
By Tom Leo
Staff writer
An Onondaga County man who owns a banned imported fish has been ordered to find a new home for the fish or have it destroyed.
The snakehead fish - which has been illegal to own in the United States since 2004 - has a voracious appetite, often consuming all other fish in a lake or pond, and even eating its young.
The fish, an invasive species originally from Asia, can slither across land, staying out of water for up to three days, to find new sources of food, including small animals.
A pair of snakeheads were released by somebody in a pond in Crofton, Md., in 2002. The pond was treated with chemicals to kill everything in it. Researchers found six adult snakeheads and more than one thousand juvenile fish.
Snakeheads also have infiltrated New York state waters.
In August, the state's Department of Environmental Conservation was forced to treat a lake and creek in Orange County with an aquatic pesticide designed to kill the fish after four snakeheads were found in the water.
Chris Deverso, of Clay, purchased his fish, who he's named Rocky, 10 years ago for $30 from a local pet store when it wasn't illegal to own the fish. He keeps the 28-inch-long fish in a 200-gallon tank at his home at 7424 Muench Road.
Deverso pleaded guilty Tuesday night and was fined $25 for possessing the illegal fish. He now is scrambling to find the fish a legal home. He's contacted zoos and aquariums, including the Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park in Syracuse.
So far, he's had no luck.
Rosamond Gifford Zoo officials told Deverso they can't take the fish because they don't have funding to build a large aquarium to house a single fish. A snakehead would attack any other fish in the tank.
"This fish doesn't deserve to die," Deverso said. "There has to be another solution."
Deverso said the fish that have caused problems in Maryland and other places are a cold-climate type of snakehead that can survive winter months.
"My fish is a giant snakehead species," he said. "It's not a cold-climate temperature fish and could not survive if it was released into a pond."
Federal regulations, however, do not distinguish between different species of snakehead; they're all illegal to possess.
Deverso said some animal organizations from outside the state have extended offers to take in Rocky. One issue is federal transportation laws across state lines.
"Another issueis the fish is 10 years old," he said. "There's a fear the stress of taking him out of the environment he's been in for 10 years and doing a transport would kill him."
State DEC officials said they would wait until Deverso's criminal court proceedings were complete before possibly seizing the fish.
"We realize this fish is this guy's pet and we're sensitive to the situation, trying to work with him as long as he's trying to find a legal home for this thing," said DEC Region 7 Capt. Woody Erickson. "If not, he'll have to surrender it to us or euthanize it himself."
There's no set timetable to seize the fish, Erickson said.
"On the other hand, if there is no home for this thing, we can't continue this on forever," he said. "We'd like to work this out within the next two weeks."
