Testicle-munching fish found in Baltic

Photo: Natural History Museum of Denmark

The 21.5-cm-long pacu fish, which has been dubbed “the ball-cutter,” was caught in an eel net by Danish fisherman Einar Lindgreen.

Lindgreen initially thought that the fish was a piranha, and the specimen was dispatched to Denmark's Natural History Museum last week for confirmation.

Expert Peter Rask Moller identified the catch as a pacu, a species which hails from South America, but has recently cropped up in other areas, including Papua New Guinea.

Two fishermen are understood to have died in Papua New Guinea after their testicles were bitten off by the fish.

Until now, the only other pacu specimen to be caught in Europe was a fish reeled in in 2002 from Poland's Oder River, which empties into the Baltic.

Whether or not the recent specimen was a pet that had been unleashed by its owner is unclear.

“It will be exciting, bordering on the frightening, to see if the fish was a one-off or if it is a species that we will see more of,” Moller said in a press release uploaded on the Natural History Museum's official web site.

Moller stressed that bathers in the Baltic should not panic, as the pacu is largely a vegetarian species.

“It is known as a plant-eater, but having said that, it goes for a little bit of everything,” Moller told the Copenhagen Post.

“In unclear waters, it can mistakenly go for anything that hangs and dangles. It can crush nuts and has very sharp teeth.” (nh)