Piranha Caught In A Pennsylvania Lake Leaves 8-year-old Angler Shocked

There is a wide variety of species you can expect to encounter if you’re fishing in Pennsylvania. That list does not include piranhas, and a young angler was understandably stunned to discover he’d managed to hook one during a recent excursion.

Pennsylvania is home to thousands of rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water where you can try your luck at fishing, and there are nearly two dozen species that are commonly found in the wild (including the millions of trout that are deposited in its waters each year for the specific purpose of being caught).

You don’t have to be an ichthyologist to know that you shouldn’t expect to land a piranha when you cast a line in the Keystone State. Those voracious carnivores are native to South America (primarily in the Amazon River basin), and there’s no way for them to naturally make their way to the United States.

However, they have managed to infiltrate its waters every now and then, which was the case with one that gave a young fisherman a very unexpected surprise.

An 8-year-old caught a piranha in a lake outside of Philadelphia

According to WPVI, 8-year-old Seamus Coffey and his dad Michael headed to Ridley Park Lake (located in a suburb southwest of Philadelphia) on Saturday morning for one of their regular fishing outings.

Seamus was able to hook a fish that managed to put up a bit of a fight, and while he thought it might be a bass while reeling it in, he discovered that was not the case when he realized he’d managed to bag a red-bellied piranha that weighed approximately two pounds.

Biologists working for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission confirmed that was the species in question, and while it’s unclear how the piranha ended up in a lake it had no business being in, all signs point to it being dumped there by someone who kept it as a pet before deciding to get rid of it.

The fish was not returned to the water, as Michael told the outlet they disposed of it “humanely.” It’s unlikely it would have survived for long after the summer gave way to cooler weather, and officials used the story to stress that you should not toss a piranha (or any other invasive species) in a body of water when you get tired of caring for it.

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