During the month of August a Danish fisherman caught a South American Pacu fish, a relative of the Piranha. This encounter was soon transformed into an overblown joke, inducing men to pay attention to the possibility of meeting this rare fish that supposedly confuses male reproductive organs with tree nuts, its main source of food.
“Anyone choosing to bathe in the Oresund sea these days had best keep their swimsuits well tied,” Professor Peter Rask Moller from the Copenhagen Museum of Natural History said, according to CNN. He later confirmed that this comment was merely a joke that got blown out of proportion. The fact that this species is rare makes the risk for males very low.
Piranha researcher at the University of Michigan William Fink confirmed that Pacus are vegetarians and have no history of attacking humans. The lost fish, which is native to the Amazon and cannot survive in cold water, was most likely introduced by humans to Danish waters.
It appears as though Danish men can once again swim without fear.