Land-Walking, Bird-Eating Fish Looks to Invade Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin!

For an avid angler like myself, it sounds like something out of a horror film. Picture this, a fish with the face of a snake, the ability to breathe air, and the disturbing talent of crawling across land to find new waters. This is no fantasy. It’s the Northern Snakehead, an invasive species native to Asia that’s inching its way closer to the Midwest, and wildlife officials are sounding the alarm.

This predatory fish has already been found in nine U.S. states, most recently just south of Illinois in Missouri. Biologists there were rattled after a snakehead was pulled from Bull Creek in 2019, and several more have been spotted since. The worry? That these were not one-off events. Bull Creek feeds into the White River watershed. This system could act as a gateway to the heart of the Midwest, including Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

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Though these states haven’t confirmed established populations yet, the threat feels uncomfortably close. Wisconsin did have a scare in 2003 when a large snakehead was found in the Rock River. It turned out to be the result of a pet release, something that continues to be one of the main ways these fish invade new places. In Illinois, a single Northern Snakehead was found in 2004. Iowa officials say they’ve never confirmed a sighting, though reports occasionally trickle in. Usually, it's a case of mistaken identity involving bowfin, a native look-alike.

Still, experts aren’t reassured. What makes the Northern Snakehead so dangerous is its resilience. It can live for days out of water as long as its skin stays moist, and when it needs to, it can crawl across land like a snake. Combine that with the ability to lay up to 15,000 eggs five times a year and an appetite that includes not just fish and frogs, but birds and even small mammals, and you’ve got a serious ecological threat.

Despite claims of their invasive damage, some people DO want them around. Some anglers prize them as an ideal sport fish, as well as worth eating. In Virginia, some anglers like Mike (seen below) focus each foray to the waterways, around snagging the feisty fish.

In Missouri, the Department of Conservation hasn’t taken any chances. They’ve implemented aggressive monitoring, encouraged the public to kill and report any snakeheads caught, and banned the transport of live bait between watersheds. Some states have even launched fishing tournaments with cash prizes for catching snakeheads.

For now, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin remain in the clear, but the fish is moving closer. If it gets a foothold, it won’t be easy to undo the damage. Our best defense is awareness. The moment we stop watching is the moment this fish will quietly slip into our waters for good.