Burnaby lagoon snakehead caught on tape again

A Burnaby resident spotted the vicious snakehead fish in Central Park lagoon for the second time last Wednesday. May 22, 2012. (CTV)

Another wildlife watcher has filmed a snakehead swimming in Burnaby's Central Park lagoon, but it's unclear if it was the same fish spotted on Mother's Day.

Local resident Bruce Causier caught the voracious species on tape while standing in the bushes by the small lake last Wednesday.

"It was a long, tubular shape and it kinda had some markings on it, almost like a boa snake," Causier said.

Park and environment officials have been on alert since the first snakehead sighting; the fish is considered an invasive species in North America, where it has no natural predators.

Originating from Asia, the snakehead can ravage entire ecosystems, eating anything it can get its sharp teeth around, including small animals. The species can also survive days on land and is known to wriggle across small distances.

Causier said he's already noticed a drop in the wildlife population in Central Park.

"There's fewer ducks in the pond right now. Usually, there's a lot of ducklings, but there's only five ducklings right now," he said. "I think it's eating the ducklings."

Park staff sealed off the pond last week to minimize the environmental risk. But Causier says they failed to cover a lure with two pipes leading into Fraser River.

Experts say the snakehead would pose a serious threat to local salmon populations, if it did reach the river.

While the province mulls a ban on selling live snakeheads in B.C., some have been taking matters into their own hands and trying to catch the "fishzilla" themselves - even though fishing is not allowed in the pond.

"There was a guy trying to catch it with a fishing rod," Causier told CTV News. "It came up to the lure, missed the lure, and then the fish swam off."

With files from CTV British Columbia's Nafeesa Karim