Thursday, February 21, 2008

A Fish That Makes A Piranha Look Cuddly


A savage fish more deadlier than a piranha has been caught on British shores for the first time.

The 2 foot giant snakehead was caught by angler Andy Alder in Lincolnshire as he fished for pike on the River Witham near North Hykeham.

Dubbed the "gangster" of the fish world, it eats everything it comes across and has been reported to kill people.

The monster fish, which is from south-east Asia, can also "crawl" on land and survive out of water for up to four days.

Locals know to keep a careful watch on cattle near the water as a school of snakeheads have been known to crawl up onto the land and kill livestock, feasting and then crawling back into the water again.

It already has a fearsome predatory reputation in other parts of the world.

In the U.S, the fish has been described as a "FrankenFish" as its like something out of a horror film.

Alder said: "It had a gob full of razor-sharp teeth. To be honest it looked terrifying."

Anglers and conservationists are panic-stricken after its discovery in Britain.

An Environment Agency source said: “The reaction was, 'Oh s***'. This is the ultimate invasive species — if it starts breeding here it's a disaster."

Ben Weir, of the fishing magazine Angler's Mail, said: "In all my time of working within fishing I have never heard so many concerned voices.

"These guys are the real deal and have attacked humans.
Everyone within the angling and fishery world have been left gobsmacked by its capture."

Experts have examined pictures of the fish and confirmed it was the predator. It is on a blacklist of species that cannot be imported into the UK.

Catching the vicious fish is considered great sport in Asia and its bones are ground up and used as an aphrodisiac.

One of the world's leading angling guides, Jean Francois-Helias of Angling Adventures Thailand told OBB News: "That fish is a giant snakehead, or channa micropeltes, the meanest of all snakehead species they have no fear."

The same fish caused chaos when they made it into the U.S. in 2002.
Snipers were set up on river banks to shoot them and entire lakes were poisoned in a bid to wipe them out.

Adult snakeheads can grow to 3ft and weigh as much as 44lb.

3 comments:

frog ponds rock... said...

a "more deadlier gangster fish" mmmm is that more terminal than fatal? or maybe just toxically neutral..
cheers kim

Joanna Cake said...

Suddenly those boring fishing programmes on satellite might become a bit more interesting...

Anonymous said...

That fish has no Plaice in our waters.