Interessanter Fang

[missy]

Wie einige von euch vielleicht wissen bin ich begeisterte Anglerin und zudem wohne ich seit einer Woche direkt am Cumberland River in Clarksville Tennessee.
Heut morgen dann schlug ich die Zeitung auf und fand folgenden Artikel:

Toothy fish snagged near Cumberland City steam plant
APSU student believes it's piranha, state agent says he might be right
By AMY RITCHART
The Leaf-Chronicle


Graduate student Jon McMahan suspects he's netted his best fishing story at the age of 23 — and he's been enjoying telling everyone in town.

The biology student believes he caught a piranha — or a similar aggressive exotic fish with a mouth full of teeth — on a Tuesday night fishing trip with his friend Adam Neblett.
   
The pair was on a spontaneous fishing trip at the Cumberland City Steam Plant when McMahan hooked the tropical fish.

"We were fishing near the steam plant at the mouth of a stream that opens into the Cumberland River," he said. "It was kind of like a normal day of fishing. I hooked something, and all the sudden we saw a red belly flying through the air.

"This is probably my biggest fish story — I've hit my peak at 23. I'm going to have to go to the ocean to top this one."

The fish ended up in the boat, nearly in Neblett's lap, after it bit through the steel lure, McMahan said.

"We didn't want to throw him back in the water," he said.

McMahan, who has a bachelor's degree in biology and is studying aquatic biology at Austin Peay State University's graduate school, wants to have the fish officially identified. Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency fisheries biologist John Riddle receives one or two calls each year from fishermen who catch something that looks like it came out of an aquarium.

"This was the first call (about a piranha) this year," he said. "It's been years since I've had a summer when I didn't get a call. We have people bringing them by regularly."

Riddle said they're not always piranhas.

"Apparently people let a lot of their pets loose," he said. "It is illegal to do that. They are breaking the law and they are running risks of doing damage to the environment."

Riddle also said people don't need to be worried about these fish, most of which don't survive the winter except near the warmer water from the steam plant. The plant is about 15 miles southwest, and down river, of Clarksville.

"They do not winter over here. We don't have populations of those things," he said. "Most of them are not something that attacks large animals individually."

McMahan said even if it's not a piranha, it's a strange fish to find.

"I want to find out. Piranha or not, anything with teeth like that — it's definitely tropical," he said. "It's obviously not from here."

In October 2001, a similar catch was brought to the attention of The Leaf-Chronicle.

That toothy fish was also caught in the Cumberland River, but near the Red River. It was identified as being a member of the piranha family.

 

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060824/NEWS01/608240315/1002


Auf die Idee das der Cumberland River Piranhas hat,bin ich noch gar nicht gekommen.
Da hilft dann wohl auch die beste Schwimmweste nix ,wenn man mal aus Versehen ins Wasser faellt....ich rechne nun immer damit das ich mal 'angeknabbert' werde..

Gruss

Missy