Maryland’s northern snakehead fish is about to get a new name: Chesapeake Channa

An invasive, toothy fish that can survive out of water is about to get a new, friendlier name.

Goodbye, northern snakehead.

Hello, Chesapeake Channa.

Both the Maryland House of Delegates and the state Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to approve measures to change the snakehead’s common name to one that they hope sounds more palatable on menus.

“We have a PR problem,” Del. Todd Morgan declared to lawmakers earlier this session. “Watermen want to catch the fish, restaurants want to sell the fish, environmental experts want the fish gone. … The problem here is a lack of interest in consuming the fish.”

Morgan and Sen. Jack Bailey, both Republicans from Southern Maryland, are on a mission to rename the snakehead to spur interest in catching, serving and eating up the invader that’s affecting the balance of the ecosystem.

They point out that plenty of other fish have been given prettier names.

Ever eaten the slimehead? You might not think so, but you may have ordered the fish by its more colorful name, orange roughy.

Same goes for chilean sea bass, previously known as the Patagonia toothfish.

People were leery about eating dolphin fish, but how about mahi mahi? Delicious.

Even the famous striped bass is known here in Maryland as rockfish.

“I believe an appetizing name is all that stands in the way of consumer acceptance,” Bailey told fellow senators during a public hearing. He assured them that the fish is “delicious to eat.”

The northern snakehead first appeared in Maryland waters in 2002, when it was discovered in a pond behind a Crofton shopping center.

The fish immediately captured attention for its ability to breath air, conjuring visions of a scary fish crawling out of water. It was dubbed the “Frankenfish” and a media frenzy ensued.

The fish native to parts of Asia and Russia has the scientific name Channa argus and the common name of northern snakehead.

There were efforts to eradicate snakeheads from that Crofton pond, but in the ensuing years, the snakehead showed up in other ponds and rivers in Maryland. The state Department of Natural Resources first urged people to kill them, and later encouraged people to eat them, too.

The initial proposal from Morgan and Bailey was to rename the snakehead as the “Patuxent Fish” for the watershed where it was first found. But the name “Chesapeake Channa” emerged from the legislative process as the preferred new moniker.

Since both the House and Senate have passed their own versions of the renaming measure, it only needs a few procedural steps — each chamber passing the other’s version — before going to Gov. Wes Moore for his consideration.

The name change has the blessing of the state Department of Agriculture, which is in charge of promoting the state’s seafood industry.

Rachel Jones, the agriculture department’s government relations director, testified that some restaurants and dealers already call the fish Chesapeake Channa.

“The name northern snakehead makes the fish a little more difficult to market,” she said.

And while the common name might change on menus and at seafood markets, the Department of Natural Resources cautioned that the old name of “northern snakehead” won’t go away entirely. Because DNR scientists work with other states and federal officials, they’ll still still have to use the names that everyone else uses.

Pamela Wood

pamela.wood@thebaltimorebanner.com

Pamela Wood covers Maryland politics and government. She previously reported for The Baltimore Sun, The Capital and other Maryland newspapers. A graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, she lives in northern Anne Arundel County.

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