Everyone Out of the Water!

We cued up the theme from “Jaws” after seeing the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Aug. 5 photograph of what it claimed to be a piranha caught in Lake Ann at Bella Vista. Fearing a panic by local lake-goers, we consulted the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

It turns out that what 12-year-old John Patton of Rogers caught was probably a pacu, a non-meat-eating cousin of the piranha. Laughing, the commission experts said the chances the fish was a piranha were very slim.

A close look at the fish’s teeth would be required for absolute identification. Pacu have become so common in Arkansas that the commission now recognizes a state record for pacu caught by fishermen.