The snake head is a more aggressive fish then LMB. I totally disagree with your view on the snake head and side with the DNR on this one. Kill them on sight.
Go look on youtube, watch the video where the snake head eats a LMB. snake head isn't afraid of any size fish, they will eat anything in their way once they get to be an adult.
I spoke with John Odenkirk just this past summer who is the most knowledgeable fisheries biologist on northern snakeheads in North America. His opinion was what many were for the first few years. But after studying them for a decade, it's changed and he is no longer concerned about them.
Straight from the VA Tech snakehead page:
"Northern snakeheads do eat primarily fish. They have a similar diet to largemouth bass, but largemouth eat considerably more crayfish and other species such as frogs, turtles, snakes, etc. In comparison, northern snakeheads are almost completely piscivorous (unpublished data). However, there is nothing to suggest that they are any more voracious than the bass that already exist in greater numbers in the river. If anything could eat all the fish in the river, bass would have already done so. Northern snakehead do often select shallower, weedy habitats than bass, where they feed extensively on small banded killifish and mummichog."
I'm not saying it is first legal to catch them and transfer them elsewhere. It certainly isn't! However, there are plenty of fish out there that are more damaging to an ecosystem. A very pristine river system may be more affected, but those pristine river systems likely wouldn't have the habitat snakeheads thrive in and thus wouldn't support them very well anyways...
I've fished, seined and have studied the Potomac River nearly my whole life. I have known it before snakeheads and after their introduction. I have seen no difference in fish composition or size structures. The newly introduced blue catfish will cause far more issues to the Potomac River than the snakeheads will...
