|
Here's another amazing fish story
from
Clyde.
Click on any photo below to see a
bigger, more detailed image!
 Here's Kevin
in June 2000 on a tributary of the mighty Amazon River with one of the many
piranha fish caught that afternoon. Kevin and some of his friends from the
Oakland (California) Zoo were on a wildlife
expedition up the Amazon and its tributaries aboard the riverboat Amatista.
 One afternoon, they all got
aboard their smaller "expedition boats" and headed out to a spot their
guides, Juan and Edwin, knew there'd be good piranha fishing. Juan and Edwin are
Peruvian naturalists from the region in Peru where the June
2000 expedition took place.
Once they found the spot, under the shade of
jungle vegetation along the bank, they started plopping a baited hook into the
water in a way that made it seem like a small animal had dropped out of the
trees and was splashing in the water trying to get out. Ask Kevin to show
you some time. That's pretty much how he swims, anyway, the
landlubber.
Well, before long, they had quite a catch of
piranha! 
The big surprise to the anglers was that piranha make mighty good eating!
I could have told them that! Everybody knows all fish are eaten by even
bigger fish --so all fish MUST be good to eat! As a South American cichlid
myself, I can't say I object to Kevin and his friends
eating the fish who might otherwise be eating my close cousins!
 While
fishing, our boatman helped one of the piranha pose for Kevin's camera.
Not long after, the unfortunate man was bitten while taking one of the piranha
off a hook and received a really nasty wound --as you can imagine!
|
