Piranhas seen in Turkish waters

SİVAS – Doğan News Agency

Examinations have started after amateur fishermen caught piranhas in the Kızılırmak River for the third time in the last 20 days.

Three separate amateur fishermen caught piranhas, which are indigenous to the Amazon basin, in Kızılırmak, running through the city center of the Central Anatolian province of Sivas.

The situation put authorities from the provincial food and agriculture directorate and academics from the city’s Cumhuriyet University on alert, with the launch of an examination to find out the reason behind the exotic fishes appearing in the waters.

The first fisherman to catch a piranha, Osman Asamaka, said he caught the fish while fishing under the city’s railway bridge by the river.

Asamaka said he caught a piranha for the first time in his life and after catching the fish, he grilled and ate it.

Another amateur fisherman, Muzaffer Metinoğlu, also said he caught piranhas three days ago in the same river while he was fishing with a net, as well as two other fishers, Süleyman Güleçyüz and Kürşat Şimşek, catching the same kind of fish 16 days ago when they were anchoring.

It is assumed that somebody who fed the piranhas in an aquarium might have thrown the fishes into the river.