The Snakehead Fish

The Snakehead Fish

        1. The snakehead fish is considered as an invasive aquatic fish across the United States. It originated from Asian countries, for example, China, Korea and Russia, and some parts of Africa. The snakehead fish was first discovered in California nineteen years ago and later occurrences of the snakehead fish was reported in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and Arkansas’ freshwater streams, rivers, wetlands and ponds. People suspect that exotic fish owners introduced this rare kind of fish to the United States. They might have discarded their unwanted snakehead fish into the local waterways or intentionally released them to create more food source for fishermen. There are four species of snakeheads: Channa argus (northern snakehead), Channa micropeltes (giant snakehead), Channa marulius (bullseye snakehead), and Channa maculate (blotched snakehead).

        They are capable of breathing outside the water and can stay on dry lands for up to four days searching for other bodies of water. The wide distribution of this type of fish can be very costly to manage because the snakehead fish is on top of the food chain and are destructive of small prey in the area. During the spring, especially when their young are born, adults are aggressive and fatal to trespassing species. To control snakehead fish, Federal Government passed Federal Lacey Act, which prohibits transportation of these fish and viable eggs to different bodies of water. It is recommended to not release the caught snakehead back into the water. If found, kill it, freeze it and report to the local fish and wildlife services.

Flint Incident

        2. The officials of Flint Michigan decided to cut costs by switching water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River in 2014. Flint used to source its drinking water from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and paid to the city of Detroit. The idea of sourcing its drinking water from its own lake sounded promising to the officials; however, the State Department of Environmental Quality failed to treat the water with anti-corrosive agent because the agent would have cost about $100 a day. As soon as the city switched it’s source, residents of Flint have started noticing changes to its drinking water. It started to smell, taste and look differently because of the iron in the water. In addition to iron, Flint’s untreated water caused lead to leach from old homes. Almost half of the homes in Flint are old and have lead pipes. When residents complained about the color and taste of the drinking water, the governor of Flint, Mayor Dayne Walling, refused to admit the contamination of their drinking water and even drank the water on public TV to make his point.

        In Flint’s Hurley Medical Center, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha was noticing an increasing amount of patients with rashes and hair loss. She and her colleagues decided to test lead in children’s blood and the result was shocking. The amount of lead in children’s blood has doubled and even tripled than the required Medicare level. The damage has already been done by then. According to CNN, Dr. Hanna-Attisha reported: “ It’s a well-known, potent neurotoxin. There’s tons of evidence on what lead does to a child, and it is one of the most damning things that you can do to a population. It drops your IQ, it affects your behavior, it's been linked to criminality, and it has multigenerational impacts. There is no safe level of lead in a child." What a tragedy? This whole incident could have been prevented if the government of Flint followed the Federal Regulation and treated their drinking with the required agent.