Pet retailers joined pet owners and lobbyists in protesting a proposed state ban on possessing any kind of snakehead fish at a July hearing in Annapolis, Md.

A draft regulation released in late June by the Department of Natural Resources would prohibit state residents from owning northern snakeheads and 28 other species of the Asian fish. Live snakeheads could be kept only with a DNR permit.

Federal law already prohibits the importation and interstate trade of all species of the fish. It also is illegal to introduce the fish into a state waterway.

According to retailer Ruth Hanessian, president of the Maryland Association of Pet Industries, MAPI members would be granted a three-month immunity period allowing them to accept snakeheads from the public for appropriate disposition after the new regulation takes effect on Sept. 13.

State officials believe the ban is needed to stop pet owners from dumping the fish when they outgrow their aquariums or are no longer wanted.

But Hanessian, one of several retailers who testified at the hearing, said it's unfair to include the other 28 species in the regulation and to criminalize responsible owners. She and other retailers asked that pet owners who already have the fish be grandfathered in.

However, pet owners may be unwilling to purchase a permit, she conceded. "No one's going to pay $100 for a snakehead they've had for six years."

The northern snakehead has been found in two Maryland ponds as well as the Potomac River and its tributaries. Officials poisoned a pond in Crofton in 2002 and drained a second pond in Wheaton earlier this year in hopes of eradicating the fish. But the discovery of more snakeheads in the Potomac River in recent months has led scientists to acknowledge there is little they can do if the fish are reproducing in the river.

State officials are urging anyone who catches a snakehead to humanely kill it with a blow to the head.

In Ohio, Department of Natural Resources authorities in April seized four redline snakehead fish at a pet store where they reportedly were offered for sale. In July, Joe Schultz of Their World Pet Shop (Perry) was found guilty of possessing the illegal fish and sentenced to six months' probation, according to published news reports. During that time, he will perform community service for the Ohio Division of Wildlife by educating the public about the fish.

It was the first seizure in the state since the federal ban was enacted in 2002. [September 2004 PET AGE]