Anglers are already required to kill the invasive fish whenever they catch one. Now they can make some beer money for their trouble
Want to get paid to fish? If so, make your way to Maryland, where wildlife officials have instituted a new “fish for cash” program in an effort to get a more accurate count of northern snakeheads in Chesapeake Bay.
Together with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources just launched a tagging program that incentivizes anglers to catch, kill, and record northern snakehead fish. The agency has long tried to repress the spread of the invasive species throughout the state, and anglers are currently required to kill every snakehead they catch in Maryland waters. This is just the first time that the DNR has actually paid them to do so.
The program differs from other state-run wildlife bounty programs in that anglers will only get paid for catching and reporting tagged snakeheads. Fisheries managers with the DNR have already placed yellow and blue tags on 250 fish in the Blackwater River and Chesapeake Bay so far, and they plan to tag another 250 this summer.
After catching a tagged snakehead, anglers participating in the program are required to write down the tag number, take a picture of their catch, and report it to the USFWS by calling 800-488-8322. After a brief review of the information provided, officials will mail out the payment. Depending on the color of the tag, anglers can receive a gift card ranging from $10 to $200.
“This is the first time we’ve given out cash for recording tags of snakeheads,” the DNR’s program manager Joseph W. Love told The Washington Post. “We’re doing this because we want to know how many snakeheads are getting harvested. This [incentive] will help us get that information.”
They ” our gov” has made it clear for years now that its against the law to release a live snakehead…..yet here they admit to releasing 250 , claiming to be handing out cash but its really a gift card. Claiming the need to know how many are being caught, which is useless without knowing how many are there. I guess we should be grateful their not selling us a $5 gamefish permit for each one.
It hasn’t been against the law to release them for awhile now. You just can’t be in possession of life ones. So you can release back into the water where you caught it, or keep it for dinner.
So if the DNR knew the snakehead was an invasive fish, eating everything in site, why didn’t they kill the ones they caught instead of tagging and releasing them. Looks like another conspiracy by the government that will be used later against the hard working local farmers, again blaming low fish population from excessive run off of nitrates and phospherous. Seems like every time you turn around government is shoving something up our ass, and trying to convince us it is good.
Yea, I’m with , 5:58 and 8:35.
I had that wtf moment reading that instead of killing them they released them and are now paying for people to catch them.
Logically this means they are done with the program they were tagged for, but one would think there was a better way to track fish migration , other than leaving them to populate and even further decimate the eco system.
Obviously one of those “because its the way we have always done it ” moments.
yea but . . . and they plan to tag another 250 this summer.
wtf?
WHAT !!!!
Who is in charge of this outrageous behavior ?
I don’t know who is charge but whoever was responsible the new name for those crooks in Annapolis is right on the money.
They should be worried more about blue catfish.