One Fish, Two Ways

A man by the name of Yong Hao Wu has been arrested after supposedly illegally importing life snakehead fish into the United States for his Howei Trading Company. In China, the snakehead fish is a delicacy in which the Chinese harvest in farms and later on boil into soup. The snakehead fish is said to have remarkable healing properties; however, when outside of its natural habitats in China, Russia and Korea, the snakehead fish is capable of wiping out entire schools of fish and ecosystems because it is a rapidly reproducing predator. In the year 2002, snakehead fish became illegal to import into the United States because they were found in a pond in the state of Maryland and were not decreasing in numbers. In fact, since that year, the population has increased in anything. The man attempting to trade the fish illegally, admitted to importing over 3,000 black sleeper fish, which he later admitted were in fact that snakehead fish. These fish are especially unique because they are capable of slithering on land for three days in search of water to swim in before dying, hence if they escape their tanks, then it is quite possible for them to find a local body of water and begin to reproduce in it. In fact, this is believed to have happened due to the fact that the snakehead fish has been found in freshwater bodies of water across the United States.

This article is relevant to the world today because it shows the indirect impacts of international trade. For instance, if snakehead fish were legal to import into the United States, it is possible that it would boost the economy at least for the Chinese food market because the fish are considered an expensive delicacy. However, if the fish escape to foreign, unnatural habitats, they can easily destroy entire schools of fish and throw off an entire body of water's ecosystem. Upon reading this article it seems that if the fish are such a delicacy, the United States might be ale to fully benefit form their trade. So maybe certain restrictions could be placed upon the sale and trade of the snakehead fish so that they could still be sold in the U.S. For example, the Chinese could import the fish dead rather than alive so that the fish are not capable of escaping from tanks and getting into nearby water. That way, the Chinese and the United States benefit through trade and there U.S. does not have to worry about the fish killing off and destroying entire ecosystems.

I found this article particularly interesting because I hate large, creepy fish; the picture in the article gave me goosebumps. After reading the article though, I was even more nervous that these snakehead fish have escaped into bodies of water near where I live. I am from New York and while I am over five hours away from the actual city, where this illegal importing was taking place, there are bodies of water near New York City that connect the bodies of water five minutes away from where I live. Based upon the information within this article also, it appears quite possible for these fish to continuously reproduce and make their way into completely different bodies of water. It would not be very difficult for these snakehead fish to go up the Hudson River, along the Eerie Canal, into Lake Ontario, which would give them access to a whole bunch of different rivers, ponds, lakes, etc. Thus, this article really freaked me out because I certainly do not want to be swimming in a lake with a fish named based on the fact that it looks like a snake. I did however find it really interesting that these fish are capable of slithering across land for three days before finding water to live in. I was unaware that fish with that quality survived on this planet and so I did feel as though this article gave me knowledge that I otherwise would have gone without knowing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/nyregion/snakehead-fish-are-a-chinatown-delicacy-and-a-threat.html?_r=1&ref=science