Wanted dead or alive: two Chinese piranhas.
News that piranhas, which are native to the South American waters of the Amazon, have come to the Chinese city of Liuzhou, has compelled local authorities to offer a $150 reward to anyone who can land one of the fish, any way they can.
Amateur fishermen have flocked to the city, in the southern autonomous region of Guangxi, to take part in the hunt. Issued fishing poles and doled out portions of meat for bait, these sport fishermen have been warmly encouraged to perch up on the banks of the Liujiang River to take a stab at hooking the beasts.
Dozens of experienced local fishermen have also been hired by the city government and relevant departments to trawl the river normally forbidden by city ordinance in a dragnet that has run systematically through the river.
Though the piranhas are not native to the region, ancient Chinese fishing techniques have been employed to hook the foreign invaders. Fishermen in Liuzhou were using banzeng, a system in which a net baited with one and a half pounds of pork is suspended from a series of bamboo poles and alternatively lowered 11 inches into the water and raised every 10 minutes.
Local media noted that the fishermen operating the four banzeng were operating them on 24-hour watches, dutifully fighting what some Chinese microbloggers have dubbed “the people’s war against the piranha.”
It all started earlier this week when Chinese state media reported that two men in Liuzhou were badly bitten by piranhas as they enjoyed the warm waters of the Liujiang River.
Zhang Kaibo was swimming and washing his dog in the river when at least three red-belly piranhas attacked him. Zhang managed to catch one of the piranhas with a net after he and his dog leaped out of the water but not before Zhang was badly bitten on his hand, requiring stitches.
The local fisheries department held an emergency meeting and came up with a rash of policies, including the bounty, to hunt down the piranhas still at large.
2012 msnbc.com