No More Piranhas, Officials Say : Go Ahead, Take a Dip in the San Joaquin River

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the piranha-infested waters of the San Joaquin River . . . it was.

State Fish and Game officials said Wednesday they are convinced that two exotic fish caught last weekend in a fishing hole near the central San Joaquin Valley farm town of Kerman do not represent a dangerous onslaught of South American piranhas, the furious, flesh-eating pit bulls of the deep.

Rather, said Bill Loudermilk, associate fishery biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game, the fish most likely were illegally dumped in the river by an aquarium owner who had grown weary of pets. Moreover, Loudermilk said, the fish were not of the notorious, flesh-devouring variety. He identified them as pacu, a less aggressive--and legal to own--member of the piranha family.

“They do have some substantial teeth,,” he said, “But to the best of our knowledge they are not the typical, vicious piranha that is the man-eater.”

The two fish, each more than a foot long, were caught hours apart Friday night and Saturday morning. One was snagged with a red worm bait, the other with chicken livers. Loudermilk speculated they had been in the river only a short time.

The second one did sink its double rows of teeth into the thumb of a fisher woman as she sought to remove the hook.

“It bled for a long time,” Euvalda Vanlandingham said. “When we looked at the fish, we saw it had two rows of teeth, and we knew something was weird about it.”

Uncertain just what they had caught, the captors of the two exotic fish took them to officials for identification.

State biologists swept the river with nets for more piranhas but found none, and Loudermilk said he assumed only two were released. He said such illegal releases of exotic fish are “common but unfortunate.”

The two piranhas remained in a deep freeze, awaiting donation to the halls of science.