Rest easy. There really are no flesh-eating piranha lurking beneath the surface of Lake of the Ozarks, waiting to feed on unsuspecting victims.
Piranhas are an exotic tropical fish from South America that cannot survive in cold water.
Despite the recent attention focused on Lake of the Ozarks by the History Channel’s MonsterQuest TV program called the Piranha Invasion, the coves are not teeming with piranhas.
In fact, in the past 20 years, the lake’s most well-known fisheries biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation remembers only a few times anyone has ever come across a piranha.
On those few occasions, the report of a piranha in Lake of the Ozarks did create some excitement, Greg Stoner recalled.
The excitement was about as short-lived as the piranhas. The cooler water temperatures are a problem for piranhas.
The piranhas most likely ended up in the lake after people got tired to taking care of them and dumped their aquariums, he said.
“Three or maybe four anglers have caught them,” Stoner said. “They are not going to thrive or reproduce here. When they show up, it is a novelty.”
In 1997, the American Fisheries Society did a study and published an article that identified the places in the United States where piranhas could tolerate the water temperature.
Lake of the Ozarks was not on that list. The southern-most areas of the United States in Florida, Texas and California were, he said.
“The Invasion of the Piranhas”
For centuries the Amazon has been home to a frightening feeding frenzy of the most ferocious fresh-water monsters known to man... piranhas. These fish are said to "mutilate swimmers," their teeth cut through "flesh and bone" and the "blood in the water excites them to madness." Now, these deadly monsters are appearing in US lakes and rivers. The MonsterQuest team is investigating how they may be adapting, and whether these carnivorous beasts could breed here and devastate our waters. TV-PG
About the program
According to the History Channel's website promotion: MonsterQuest uses the latest high-tech equipment to take a scientific look at legendary creatures around the world, creatures eyewitnesses claim to see to this day. Each episode will examine all the evidence available, from pictures and video to hair and bones, as well as the eyewitness accounts themselves. Believers, skeptics and scientists will weigh in, but what will the evidence reveal? Tune in Wednesdays at 9pm/8C to find out.
Contact this reporter at joyce.miller@lakesunleader.com
