An invasive predator "Frankenfish" that can survive for days out of water has been found in a drainage pool sparking fears of the creature's uncontrollable spread.
A northern snakehead, indigenous to east Asia, was found in a drainage pool at Duck Creek Conservation Area, Missouri.
It's been four years since the species last was seen there.
The alarm has been sounded and officials are calling on anyone who catches a specimen should photograph it and "kill the fish by freezing it or putting it on ice for an extended length of time."
On May 19, state workers used a net to pull out a 13-inch northern snakehead.
The fish was found in the same water basin as the first one caught in 2019.
Many anglers don't know what an impact an uncontrolled population would have on the environment.
In their native east Asia, the snakeheads are considered a delicacy thought to have healing powers.
In 2002 the US government banned the import and transport of live northern snakeheads. Despite this they are still flourishing in parts of the US.
Dave Knuth, a Missouri fisheries management biologist based in Cape Girardeau said: "They are knocking on the door in Arkansas. They are a beast."
The fish reproduce quickly and can wiggle across muddy land. They grow up to three feet long.
Mr Knuth added that a find early in the year is worrying, saying: "I didn't expect them to be this far up the state already."
The first of its species found in Missouri was in 2019 in a ditch nearby this new find.
Officials spent days searching for additional northern snakeheads but no others were found.
Larry Underwood, 73, who lives near the conservation area, wished the state well but noted that the state also tries and fails to control feral hogs.
"It's kind of like the hogs," he said. "You are going to eliminate that? Yeah, good luck."
The fish have been spotted in Pennsylvania and in Georgia before.
After one fisherman reported catching one in Georgia, an official advised him to: "Kill it immediately."
In 2015, a team of U.S. Geological Survey scientists found a group of the fish riddled with bacteria that is known to cause chronic disease among a wide range of animals.
