While fishing in a retention pond in Palm Springs, Florida, a 14-year-old boy fished up something that doesn’t belong in Florida. This invasive species is the dangerous meat-eating piranha. That’s right, there were not one, but two piranhas caught in the wild in the United States. The most troubling aspect is that the two piranha that were found were a male and a female, which means there might be piranha babies out there, and that means there might be a self-sustaining population of those fish wreaking havoc on the local population.
Just think, people in Florida were worried about pythons. Now, there’s a legitimate animal to be afraid of (because it could possibly come after humans). If a piranha infestation sounds like something out of a horror movie, that’s because it is. In 1979, Joe Dante teamed up with Roger Corman for Piranha, a movie about… well, a bunch of piranha that invade a quiet resort town. A resort town like… Palm Springs.
Tags: piranha, flesh-eating fish, piranha caught in retention pond, Palm Springs, Florida, invasive species, dangerous fish, 14-year-old catches piranha