VANCOUVER—There are different ways to dispatch the enemy, from evisceration to pulling out the gills. But the one most recommended is decapitation.

The snakehead, a predatory fish, was spotted last week for the first time in British Columbia, at an urban park. Since its first appearance in the United States nearly a decade ago, the fish has caused major destruction of marine ecosystems.

In Maryland, the snakehead is considered such an enemy that there are videos posted on the best way to kill the large, monstrous-looking fish.

“We recommend cutting off its head because it’s quickest and most painless for the fish,” advised Joe Love, tidal bass manager for the Department of Natural Resources in Maryland. “Just make sure you cut through the spinal cord.”

Alternatively, Love advises anglers to pull out the fish’s guts — simply slicing them open isn’t enough.

The fish is so hard to destroy that Maryland has a bounty on them and gives prizes out for anglers who take a picture of any snakehead killed.

Rod Gonzalez was out at Central Park in Burnaby on May 13, feeding the koi fish in one of the park’s ponds, when he spotted a large fish.

“At first I didn’t know what it was but as the camera zoomed in, I realized it was a snakehead,” said Gonzalez, who posted the video he shot on B.C. Aquaria.com, a forum for fish hobbyists. “I’ve seen it online and on shows but never seen one in real life.”

Gonzalez said users on the forum were angry that someone appears to have dumped a snakehead into an urban pond, where it could escape into another freshwater outlet inhabited by trout.

Reports that a snakehead fish was caught in the Welland Canal in Ontario turned out to be false, and if the fish found in Burnaby is really a snakehead it would be the first sighting in B.C.

The snakehead would most likely be a northern snakehead, native to Asia, and available for purchase in Vancouver as food. Gonzalez said he’s known people who kept the fish as pets, and has heard that when they get too big, the fish is dumped.

Snakeheads can grow as long as 1.2 metres and weigh as much as seven kilograms. B.C. is considering a ban on their sale.

Matthias Herbourg, aquatic invasive species co-ordinator for the provincial government, said the fish in the video looks like a snakehead. But that hasn’t been confirmed because no one has yet seen the fish up close.

The province and the city of Burnaby have cordoned off part of the pond that overflows into another lake and are making plans to try to find the snakehead.

“The big concern is if it’s a northern snakehead that it may get in the Fraser River and then it would be a predatory fish that some of our native fish wouldn’t know how to respond to,” said Herbourg. “It would be another stressor in the ecosystem for our fish species, and it’s hard to predict outcomes.”

Snakeheads in B.C.’s rivers could affect migrating salmon, according to Herbourg, just as the fish’s appearance in Maryland waters hurt the existing largemouth bass population.

Professor Jonathan Moore at Simon Fraser University, who specializes in conservation and ecology of aquatic systems, said the most likely way the snakehead found its way into the Burnaby pond was through someone leaving it there.

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“Are there more than one? Have they started to reproduce or could they spread? We don’t know,” he said.

Not only could native salmon species be harmed if the snakehead population grows, but other species like amphibians could be decimated by an invasive fish like the snakehead which is known for its hardy survival skills and can eat other fish up to a third of their body length.

The abilities of snakeheads to survive and push out existing species in marine eco-systems have taken on almost mythical proportions. But Herbourg notes that tales of the fish being able to walk on land or even tear off someone’s arm are fictional.

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