US fisherman says bow and arrows can solve snakehead problem
Posted June 1, 2012 2:34 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BURNABY (NEWS1130) – The snakehead fish in Burnaby’s Central Park continues to get captured on video, but also continues to escape crews trying to get rid of it.
Fishermen in the US who are familiar with the fish say the wrong techniques are being used to catch the invasive fish in Burnaby.
Crews from the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations swept ponds in the park last week and also tried electro-shocking.
Nothing turned up except for a few carp, turtles and golf balls.
John Rorapaujh with the Potomac Snakehead Tournament says it’s time to try using the bow and arrow at night.
“The most effective way of capturing them is by bow and arrow. So these guys go out with these specially made boats with lights on them and go out at night.”
For years, fishermen in the Eastern United States have held snakehead derbies and even place bounties on them.
Rorapaujh says the bow and arrow is the technique that brings him the most success.
“They just creep along in the shallows and the lights light them up and shoot them with a bow and arrow. The arrows are tethered to the bow and you pull the fish and whack them over the head and put them in your cooler.”
Rorapaujh’s tournament offers $1,500 to the team who kills the most snakeheads, while the State of Maryland now offers a $200 bounty for every fish killed.
