You'd be forgiven for thinking the Snakehead fish is a Hollywood Horror invention, it prefers swamps and stagnant water. It is a fish that can slither along on land for and has a big mouth and sharp teeth. Snakeheads worried federal officials enough to commission a report on how to keep them away which is why a possible - not even confirmed - sighting of a Snakehead in the wild has the authorities in Burnaby a bit concerned. Today, we're on the trail of an invasive species to avoid.

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Part One of The Current

Satire

It's Thursday, May 17th.

According to Ontario's independent police watchdog, officers at Toronto's G20 summit violated civil rights, detained people illegally, and used excessive force.

Currently, for a billion dollars, we wouldn't expect anything less!

This is The Current.

Snakehead Fish Invasion - Liber Ero Chair in Coastal Studies

We started this segment with a clip from Youtube of some excitable young men feeding their pet. The food was a live white mouse and the pet was a snakehead fish. And not an especially big snakehead fish.

Some people in Burnaby, British Columbia spotted what they believe to be a MUCH bigger one in the city's Central Park last week. If it IS a snakehead, it's most unwelcome. Snakeheads are aggressive, have razor sharp teeth and even a kind of primitive lung that allows them to slither along land for up to an hour. They're vile enough to be movie stars.

Snakeheads may not really feed on your fear, but if they can get their mouth around it, they might just swallow it. And they're not from here; they're an invasive species and can pose a major threat to native species and ecosystems. Some jurisdictions in Canada, including Ontario, ban the sale of live snakehead fish. But in British Columbia, it's easy to purchase a live one at some Asian specialty supermarkets.

Freelance broadcaster Abby Wiseman went to check out the prices at Hung Wing Seafood in Vancouver's Chinatown. We aired a clip.

Biologists still haven't verified if the fish spotted in Burnaby was, in fact, a snakehead. But they're plenty concerned about snakeheads becoming established in B.C.'s freshwater systems.

Jonathan Moore is an assistant professor of biology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, where he's the Liber Ero Chair in Coastal Studies. We reached him at his home in Vancouver.

Snakehead Fish Invasion - Maryland Dept of Natural Resources

If there really are snakehead fish in Burnaby -- Burnaby may have a really big problem. The U.S. state of Maryland had an exploding population of snakeheads over the last few years. It became so bad, the Maryland's Department of Natural Resources pleaded with anglers to help. There is, apparently, more than one way to kill a snakehead. We aired a How to kill a snakehead fish tape.

With more on Maryland's efforts to catch and decease, we were joined by Joe Love ... one of the voices you just heard in that video. He's the tidal bass manager at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Joe Love was in Annapolis, Maryland.

This segment was produced by The Current's Chris Wodskou, Shannon Higgins and Ellen Saenger.

Other segments from today's show:

• Checking - In
• Facebook Defamation Case