DALLAS (Reuters)
A Texas
teenager who went out fishing came back with an unexpected
catch, an 11-inch (27-cm) piranha, a local newspaper reported
Friday.
Quinton Crocker reeled in the sharp-toothed carnivore, which is
native to South American rivers but not anywhere in North
America, in Stillhouse Hollow lake, a large central Texas
reservoir near the town of Killeen.
"I've lived here all my life and never seen one of these," the
15-year-old told the Killeen Daily Herald. "It was different
catching one. I didn't really know what to expect."
Officials said the fish was most likely released into the wild
after getting too big for some owner's aquarium.
They said there could be other piranhas from the same source and
they could even spawn, but the next cold winter would kill them
off.
"Are these dangerous for bathers and swimmers? No," Norman
Williams, a zoologist and chairman of the Department of Sciences
at Central Texas College, told the newspaper.
"The stories of piranha attacks are grossly exaggerated by
Hollywood," said Williams, who identified Crocker's catch.
