PIRANHAS NEAR GABROVO
[ 18 June 2008 ]
A most surprising catch has been made in a lake near Gabrovo – a deadly piranha.
A male piranha, 28 centimeters long and weighing 340 grams, was caught on Saturday (June 14) in the
Pacha Bara dam lake near the Gabrovo village of Girgini. The predator fish of the
Pygocentrus nattereri type was caught by a fisherman who used the popular “worm” technique. Surprised by the fish that showed off four rows of sharp triangle teeth, two rows per jaw, the fisherman took the fish to the regional fishing and aquacultures executive agency chief, Plamen Hristov. Although obviously belonging to the
red piranha type, the most predatory of all known types, Mr. Hristov decided to ask the qualified opinion of ichthyologists from the Department of Aquaculture at the Thracian University in Stara Zagora. They did confirm the conclusion Hristov and the fisherman had made seeing the many-toothed killer fish.
On the next day, a 22-year-old fisherman from Gabrovo caught a second piranha in the same dam. The second predator fish was again male, but smaller - 22 cm long, weighing 150 gr. As it was revealed this week by a representative of the Gabrovo fishing and hunting association, a piranha had been caught in that same dam as early as September last year, but it wasn't paid much attention. Now, fishermen from Gabrovo are rowing in the dam trailing a piece of fresh meat trying to attract more of the deadly fish.
There is no explanation of how the piranha came to be in the Gabrovo village dam other than a “subjective interference”, experts say. Someone has either been breeding the predator fish and has thrown some into the lake or has been breeding them in there. The agency, lead by Mr. Hristov, is yet to examine the dam to check if there are any more piranhas in there.
One opinion shared by locals is that the 'mafia' may be breeding the fish in that particular lake to use them to “cover up” the traces of dead bodies they were disposing of in the dam. Whether or not such a version is plausible, breeding or simply throwing piranhas in a lake is a crime in itself as swimming in such secluded waters is nothing unusual in Bulgaria, especially for children and young people.