U.S. Boy, 8, Unexpectedly Reels in Frightening Fish
A young Pennsylvania boy unexpectedly caught a piranha while fishing with his father.
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Eight-year-old Seamus and his father were fishing in a lake about 20 miles from Philadelphia when they caught the razor-toothed predator on Saturday.
“At this point you can’t put anything past Seamus,” the boy’s father, Michael Coffey, wrote in a Facebook post. “Today he caught a 2lb red belly piranha out of the Ridley Park Lake! Of all things.”
The young boy, passionate about wildlife, quickly identified the creature because he watched educational YouTube videos about the freshwater fish, Michael said.
Michael initially thought the fish could have been a bass when his son felt a bite. He told Seamus to reel it in slowly to stop it from getting away.
When Seamus pulled it out of the water, Michael wasn’t sure what it was.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is a bluegill, I don’t know what this is,’” Michael told 6ABC. “And he said, ‘It’s a piranha!’”
“He knew it was a piranha from his educational fishing videos he watches all over the world,” Michael added.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission confirmed the catch was a piranha, a scary-looking fish native to South America.
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Mike Parker, spokesperson for the agency, added that the piranha catch reflected a greater issue for the Pennsylvania community—people owning pets that they cannot care for and releasing them into the wild.
“A few times each summer we get reports of something strange like this type of fish, an alligator, a caiman… some sort of exotic snake, reptile, or in this case, a fish,” Parker said.
“I think a lot of times people do, you know, they have a dream: I want to own an exotic fish or a snake or an alligator, and it’s cute when it’s small,” the spokesman said.
“But maybe they can’t afford that or house it anymore, and they decide maybe this is someone else’s problem.”
Michael said he ended up disposing of the fish “humanely,” as it is illegal to release exotic species into Pennsylvania waters.
“We’ve had some crazy fishing experiences, but that’s definitely number one,” Michael added.
Parker added that while it is legal to own an exotic pet in the state, “you’re not allowed to introduce that species into the wilds of Pennsylvania.”
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“So that is unlawful. You can be fined, prosecuted.”
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