The infamous snakehead captured in Burnaby's Central Park last Friday will head to Victoria's Royal British Columbia Museum after SFU biologists are through with it.
On June 8, government staff caught the invasive, predatory snakehead fish in a pond in Central Park. The fish was euthanized and sent to Simon Fraser University for lab testing. It was the only snakehead found in the pond.
Snakeheads are a non-native species that can cause havoc in ecosystems by eating everything and proliferating with no natural predators to keep the population in check.
Jonathan Moore, a research chair and assistant SFU biology professor, said he's been working with the Environment Ministry and will analyze the fish, which is now in a lab freezer.
"We're trying to learn more about the fish, whether it reproduced naturally and when it was dumped," Moore said.
Fish have ear bones that grow similarly to rings on a tree, Moore explained. By chemically analyzing the rings, Moore said they can learn more about when the fish was dumped in the pond - or if it was even dumped there at all.
"There's a tiny possibility it reproduced naturally, but we're trying to rule out that," he said. "Then we can learn more about why it might have gotten dumped in there. Had it been there for a day, and now it was spotted? Or had it been there for years? And if it's been there for a while what it might be eating."
Moore also said that afterwards, the snakehead would be going to the Royal British Columbia Museum.
"My understanding is it's a very important specimen as a new sighting of a species in British Columbia," he said. "It's definitely an important issue and highlights the way there are some impacts from invasive species we can take action against."
No one from the museum was available to explain what, exactly, they were planning to do with the snakehead.
Meanwhile, the Environment Ministry's Suntanu Dalal said the B.C. government is hoping to ban possession of snakehead fish by fall.
"In the short term, we will continue to focus on educating the public that it is illegal to release any fish into any water body in B.C.," Dalal said. "The B.C. Wildlife Act's Controlled Alien Species Regulation is a regulation that controls the possession, breeding, transportation and release of animals that are not native to B.C. Currently, the regulation only covers wildlife that pose a risk to the health or safety of people. The B.C. government is expanding this list to include species that pose a threat to our environment, including several snakehead species."
