A group of dead northern snakeheads are behind a general store in Woolford, Maryland. The fish's sharp, gnarled teeth behind its ghastly mug are some of the fish's finer points.
Kenny, a lifelong outdoorsman, has been sounding the alarm for years about the Invasive species, a powerful predator native to Asia and Russia that was first discovered breeding on the East Coast in a small suburban Maryland pond 20 years ago. They have spread to Virginia, New Jersey and likely beyond.
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Kenny didn't filet the fish in the cooler behind the Woolford Store, but he knows they are usually full of eggs. He rattled off a list, his voice a machine-gun staccato: minnows, bass, perch, crayfish, frog, even baby ducks.
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In the spring of 2002, a fisherman caught a northern snakehead in a pond behind a shopping center in Crofton, Md., about 30 miles from Washington, D.C.
The legend of the "Frankenfish" was born when another was caught there and reported to Maryland's Department of Natural Resources. Think of the scares of the 1970s and the media attention they received.
The Washington Post headline from July 2002 said that the fish was able to gulp air and walk.
How did the fish get here? The man who bought the snakeheads from an Asian market in New York City intended to turn them into soup.
Kenny believes snakeheads will destroy local populations, but there are others who have come to prize, even obsess over, the fish for its fighting prowess on the end of a fishing line. Many of the fishermen say they don't see the destruction in the places they fish. The two groups mix it up in the groups dedicated to snakeheads. I have caught a few dozen snakeheads over the years in New Jersey, but have yet to kill one.
Steve Kambouris believes that the snakehead will eventually be considered a nonnative game fish, something to market to sport fishermen, not a pest to eradicate.
The biologists are more measured than the other side. Steven P says that 20 years is a blip on the biological timeline. The genie is out of the bottle when it comes to snakeheads.
A study was done before and after snakeheads were established in the Blackwater River Watershed. The Woolford Store is a few miles from the river and its vast tributaries, which have become a hub for snakehead fishermen from all over the country. The study found declines in other prey fish populations, which could be due to the presence of an additional top predator like Northern Snakehead.
Snakeheads are tough. They can breathe oxygen out of water for a while, and they don't flop on their sides like most fish. Snakeheads move. They push into adjacent waterways during big rains. The Little Patuxent River runs just feet away from Crofton Pond, which officials poisoned to kill the snakeheads. They were established in the river.
Snakeheads are difficult to catch in large numbers because they prefer shallow water with heavy vegetation, which few boats with nets can get to. Nighttime bowfishing using a bow and arrow is one of the more successful ways to kill them.
Fishermen find snakeheads difficult to catch because of their hard mouths, and they fight like pit bulls to break loose, even when they are inside your kayak. Most of the snakeheads in Kenny's cooler had holes in their heads from arrows, knives or screwdrivers, as if they were killing a zombie.
Kenny said that they can live for days if they are wet.
Kenny wants fishermen to eat the snakeheads they catch. The Cecil County Snakehead Fishing Tournament requires snakeheads to be brought to a weigh station for measurement. It is illegal to transport a live northern snakehead. A screwdriver is usually used to do it.
Kambouris hosts online tournaments where fishermen submit their measurements with photos before releasing their snakehead.
Kenny argued that a plate of fish sticks on a table outside the store was the best way to kill snakeheads. He encouraged everyone to dig in after taking a swig of an energy drink.
He told us that it was like lump crab meat.
Some fish are so unattractive that they have their names changed to appeal to the seafood industry. Snakeheads, with their bulging eyes and penchant for oozing slime, haven't had such a makeover, but once you eat one, it barely matters. Their meat is just as flaky and white as cod or flounder.
There is at least one fisherman who might carry a screwdriver in his tackle box now that the plate is empty.
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He is a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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