In Search of Monster Fish: Angling for a More Sustainable Planet, Book Review by Don Orth

Mark Spitzer’s latest book, In Search for Monster Fish: Angling for a More Sustainable Planet, will appeal to all types of anglers and adventurers. Mark Spitzer is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Central Arkansas and author of over twenty-five books.  His previous forays into fish writing include three non-fiction books: Season of the Gar: Adventures in Pursuit of America’s Most Misunderstood Fish (2010, Return of the Gar (2015), and Beautifully Grotesque Fish of the American West (2017).  He has also written fishy fiction, e.g., Garapaima: A Monster Fish Novel (2015).     

In Search of Monster Fish is a series of stories in which Spitzer seeks out a new monster fish.   Although he doesn’t formally define “monster” fish, it is apparent that size matters and big teeth add to the mystique. The term was popularized by National Geographic’s Monster Fish show.  But there are so many monster-fish stories to tell, we cannot get enough. The author’s purpose goes beyond showing off his fishing skills.  It’s more about the search. 

Book cover of In Search of Monster Fish shows Mark Spitzer with a Doitsu variety koi carp. 

Fishing is often a never-ending series of quests. Many serious observers have identified 5 stages of an angler’s life, stated simply as Any Fish, Many Fish, Big Fish, No Fish, and finally Give Back Fish (McKenna 2013).  Each monster fish was something new for Spitzer to pursue.  Each quest required new skills and a new place. Every story contains some daily conversation with himself about why he's here. He asks "What was I put here to do?"  This is a deep and difficult philosophical question to pose in a book entitled In Search of Monster Fish. It is those daily conversations that make this book most interesting.  In the first chapter, “Demythologizing Demonologies,” we join Spitzer, guide Wilson, and Lea the fun-loving poetry professor, in the Amazon in pursuit of monster fish myths. Their first fish, which the guide called dormelinas, was captured by swinging a machete. He begins the conversation about the monster fish mystique as they learn to catch and eat local fish (piranha fritta) from their guide. 
  

In “Catfishalonia,” Spitzer seeks to catch a Wels Catfish, Siluro or Silurus glanis.  This is the biggest freshwater catfish which can exceed 200 pounds and 7 feet. It is an opportunistic catfish and in the Ebro River it’s referred to as "The Ebro Monster.”  Like other catfish, it feeds at night on fish, ducks, voles, and the misplaced American red crayfish (Procambarus clarkii).   In 1974, a German fisheries biologist named Roland Lorkowsky introduced young Wels Catfish to the Ebro River to create a recreational fishery. The Ebro is no pristine river; rather, it’s a working river with hydroelectric dams, nuclear plants, chemical plants, orchards, and animal agriculture. By the late 1980s, anglers were boasting of catches of catfish over 90 pounds, which led to guiding industry for tourist anglers. While I was reading this book, a British angler caught an 8-foot albino catfish that weighed 194 pounds. Spitzer does not exaggerate about monster fish. Watch Spitzer vs Wels Catfish to see the outcome.
   

In “Cuda Chaos in the Dominican Republic,” Spitzer and his now fiancée are beaten by ocean waves in search of barracuda, in particular small ones because the largest Barracuda have toxic levels of the ciguatoxin. Nothing prepares one for rough waters, but Lea and Mark eventually catch and eat Barracuda in a Cuda creole. In “Sportfishing Gar,” Spitzer explores his local fishing water, Lake Conway, which contains three species of gar. Spitzer is experienced catching them with jug lines and trot lines, but this adventure represents his very first efforts at catching gar with a rope lure.  See Doug Jeffries YouTube video for instruction on making a rope lure.  After initial success, his next trial is to catch a gar on a fly.   But this quest becomes a lesson in learning to fly cast like an experienced fly fisher—not a goal for amateur.

Mark Spitzer with Alligator Gar.  (c) Mark Spitzer

After a honeymoon in Borneo, he is jet-lagged while “Monster-fishing shark off Montauk,” the eastern end of the Long Island peninsula in New York.  He solicits the help of Captain John Krol aboard the Let’s Go Fishin. Captain John has been fishing these waters since the 1980s.  Montauk is the site of an annual shark tournament with big money prizes and donation of shark meat to food pantries. Spitzer opens a brand new bucket of chum, and raises questions about shark hunting. Captain Krol tells him “it used to be all about tuna out here, but when the tuna thinned due to the mushrooming markets, something else had to take its place.  Shark then became the thing.” According to the experienced Krol, everything is down compared to the past.  Before tuna were completed fished out, “there was only shark hunter in these waters...Frank Mundus. After trying to kill everything in the ocean, he became a conservationist…then tried to save everything in it.”   True, “Monster Man” Mundus is well-known in the region and was the inspiration for the character Quint in the book and movie, Jaws. 
     

After a Great White Shark terrorized a New England town in the movie, Jaws,  the interest in shark fishing grew and shark tournaments incentivized shark harvest.  Shark are extremely vulnerable to overfishing due to low reproductive output, high extinction risk, and intrinsic vulnerabilities to overexploitation.  Recreational fishing for sharks is a global management concern (Babcock 2009; Shiffman 2014; Gallagher et al. 2017).  Frank Mundus was responsible for calling shark fishing “monster fishing,” which gained notoriety when he harpoon-captured a massive white shark off Montauk that he estimated at ~2000 kg in 1964 (4500 pounds) (Mundus and Wisner 1971). It’s true that Mundus became a shark hunter turned conservationist.  He was promoted circle hooks, initiated a shark tagging program, and advocated for catch and release. Today there is a one shark per day limit with 54-inch minimum regulation. 
  

Shark hunting is very controversial, and Spitzer gets his facts straight.  Worm et al. (2013) estimated that the total number of sharks killed by fisheries each year is between 63 and 273 million, with an average of approximately 100 million. The problem is overfishing and as Spitzer writes “monster fish have a lot to teach us, but to learn from them we need to keep them around.” While chumming for sharks, he observes large fishing trawlers and reflects on his fishing quests for monster fish.   Spitzer writes “…I was heading in the right direction, but if this monster-fish thing is really more than just an excuse for me to go fishing, then I need to look even harder. Way harder!” 
 

In Monster carp in France, Spitzer tries a week of extreme carp angling.  Carp know no borders and the Itkus fishing lake is designed to make carp anglers respect their borders.  Each section of the fishing lake is called a ‘swim’ and anglers reserve their swims. If you get skunked in your assigned swim, no wandering to other areas of the lake is permitted.  Spitzer must admit his ignorance in order to catch a monster carp. Specialized carp rigs include hair rigs, boilies, long carp rods, and pop-up rod alarms. These are extreme carp anglers who drive and survive during a long week of carp angling. Fish are caught, photographed, and released to bite again—but only after the extreme angler applies first-aid cream to damaged carp lips.  Anything that helps reduce the ingress of bacteria into open wounds is likely to benefit the carp.  However, this technique has not been transferred to North America.  Carp are a learned preference for monster fishing.  Clearly, in managed waters they can reach monster sizes, as long as one practices catch and release.  Mirror carp, a genetic mutation with scattered scales covering only part of the body, were a target here. Spitzer was skunked on some days, but did land the Doitsu variety Koi which is pictured on the book's cover. It remains a great paradox that carp are such a highly desired species in some places while reviled for its dominance and damages in lake ecosystems in other places. 
    

“Bananas from Tarpon” is Switzer’s quest to catch tarpon and supersize stingrays in Gambia.  With his “boss lady” Lea, his guides Farmara, Junior, and Fabu, he eats his first stingray, complete with gelatinous skin and cartilage.  Although he was thrilled to catch a “large” tarpon, it was barely large enough to qualify as an adult specimen.  His conversation gets back to his development as an angler and what he can put back. Food security in Gambia depends on catching and keeping fish.  The old saw “Game fish are too valuable to only by caught once” really doesn’t make sense here. Humans are a species that looks out for itself first. His thinking is turning as he travels to Senegal with thoughts of monster billfishes, Zane Grey, and Ernest Hemingway.  Here near the heart of the world’s richest fishing areas, the local fishers were harvesting Skipjack Tuna Katsuwonus pelamis with handlines from small boats, called pirogues.  But larger vessels and foreign trawlers are threatening the livelihoods of Senegalese artisinal fishers. Spitzer casted for small tuna and used them as bait for his pursuit of billfishes including the Blue Marlin Makaira nigricans, a species threatened by overfishing.  Before long, he switches his target to the Dorado, or Mahi Mahi Coryphaena hippurus, and he reflects again on putting back.

In the “Italian Zander” the conversation continues with twenty ways to put back more. His interest in Monster Zander peaked after a story of monster fish terrorizing swimmers in a Swiss lake. It’s very unusual for Zander Sander lucioperca to attack humans, but the strange story initiated his quest. The Zander is closely related to the Walleye Sander vitreus. In fact the world record Zander at 25.3 pounds, is only slightly larger than the world record Walleye at 22.7 pounds, from Greer’s Ferry Lake in Arkansas. With his guide, Fabrizio, he fishes Lake Como in northern Italy.  This natural lake has a fish fauna that is altered by widespread stocking of non-native fishes (Volta et al. 2018).  After catching a Zander, European chub, European Perch, Northern Pike, and a North American favorite—a Largemouth Bass, he returns to the conversation before traveling to the boot heel of Italy to pursue Conger Eel.   You see there is a myth about a 130 pound Conger Eel landed off the coast of Devon. The European Conger Conger conger reaches a maximum size of 3 meters though more typical big ones are 1.5 m. I suspect this trip was more about the seafood. His guide, Antonio, had a mis-shapened finger from a Moray Eel encounter and spoke only Italian.  The longline they fished encountered several species, including some Conger, but mostly the longline caught immature fish.  While his reward was buona murena fritta, the reminder of overfishing immature fish troubled him.

The concluding chapter is “Solutions for  Disenlightenment” where Spitzer finishes his conversation about giving back.  Without giving away the ending, he examines why monster fish are so sacred to him.  What is a man without monster fish?  What are reasonable solutions?  We need scientists and discovery and more types of FishLove.  No single, simple answer exists “to sustain the terrifying beauty of this mind boggling, mind blowing, and mind altering monster fish world.” (Spitzer 2019, p. 180).  I recommend that you join Mark Spitzer on his expeditions in this fun- and monster-filled book and plan your next fishing quest.

References

Babcock, E.A. 2009. Recreational fishing for pelagic sharks worldwide.   Pages 193-204 in I.-M.D. Camhi, E.K. Pikitch, and E.A. Babcock, editors. Sharks of the open ocean: Biology, fisheries, and conservation.  Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.

Gallagher, A.J., N. Hammerschlag, A.J. Danylchuk, and S.J. Cooke. 2017 Shark recreational fisheries: Status, challenges, and research needs. Ambio 46(4):385-398. doi: 10.1007/s13280-016-0856-8

McKenna, M. 2013.  Five stages of a fisherman’s life.  Sun Valley Magazine   March 18, 2013.  Accessed 7 February 2019 from https://sunvalleymag.com/five-stages-of-a-fishermans-life/

Mundus, F., and W.L. Wisner.  1971. Sportfishing for sharks. Collier Books, New York.

Shiffman, D.S. 2014. More large sharks were killed by recreational anglers than commercial fishermen in the US last year. Retrieved November 3, 2019. Available: www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=17834.

Spitzer, M. 2019. In Search of Monster Fish: Angling for a More Sustainable Planet. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska. 189 pp

Volta, P., E. Jeppesen, P. Sala, S. Galafassi, C. Foglini, C. Puzzi, and I.J. Winfield. 2018.  Fish assemblages in deep Italian subalpine lakes: history and present status with emphasis on non-native species.  Hydrobiologia 824:255-270    Worm, B., B. Davis, L. Kettemer, C. Ward-Paige, D. Chapman, M. Heithaus, S. Kessel, and S. Gruber.  2013. Global catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding options for sharks. Marine Policy 40: 194-204.

Red-bellied Piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri): The World's Most Misunderstood Fish, by Don Orth

Sharp teeth, bright red belly, and grey and silver flecked scales on a laterally compressed body -- these characterize the Red-bellied Piranha.   That's one way to describe it.  Teddy Roosevelt in Through the Brazilian Wilderness referred to them as “most ferocious fish in the world.”    Since his book was widely read, many people were aware that the piranha  “…will snap a finger off a hand incautiously trailed in the water; they mutilate swimmers—in every river town in Paraguay there are men who have been thus mutilated; they will rend and devour alive any wounded man or beast; for blood in the water excites them to madness. They will tear wounded wild fowl to pieces; and bite off the tails of big fish as they grow exhausted when fighting after being hooked.”  Ever since the cult film, Piranha, appeared in 1978,  frenzied feeding attacks cause otherwise sedate mid-westerners to scream “Piranha!”  In one segment of the film, the resort owner impatiently asks “What about the #$%* piranha?”   in reply, the manager deadpans  “They’re eating the guests sir.”    Hilarious!   No fewer than six movies on Piranha have been released for modern audiences.   Check one out at the nearest Redbox this weekend! Just don't expect more than 2 stars.

After witnessing Red-bellied Piranha feeding on helpless goldfish in a fish tank, every 12-year old boy wants one.   Feeding behavior in captivity was meticulously described by Fox (1972).  Each day he observed the attacks of the Red-bellied Piranha on a much large goldfish.   In 88% of feeding trials, the piranha attacked the tail.  Other attacks were on the eyes of the goldfish.  Both strategies quickly reduce mobility of the prey.   By the way, it is unlikely that that experiment would be approved by your Institution's Animal Care and Use Committee today.  The aggressive frenzied feeding is the primary mystique of the Red-bellied piranha, popularized by stories of a man’s face being eaten off, piranhas eating a duck, and many more frightening stories.  But, there is much more to this fish than what you view on Jeremy Wade’s River Monsters.  

Red-bellied Piranha.  Photo by Greg Moine.

The Red-bellied Piranha is certainly a devout carnivore and preys on much larger prey.  The Red-bellied Piranha is the best known of the piranha species.  The Red-bellied Piranha is a member of the large and diversified family  of fishes that includes the tetras, silver dollars, South American trout (Characiformes, Characidae).   The pacus, silver dollars and prianhas form a subfamily named Sarrasalminae with 80 species.        Although not all piranhas are carnivores, the name piranha actually means “tooth fish” in the Brazilian language Tupí.  The Wimple Piranha Cataoprion mento actually feeds on the scales of other fishes.  Yes, it’s a real mode of feeding called lepidophagy.
 

The Red-bellied Piranha is widely distributed in the freshwater tropical rivers of South America.   Of the 30 or more Piranha species, it is the one most commonly sold in the tropical fish industry.    However, this is not a beginner's fish.   It is a shoaling fish and will do better in a tank with many other Red-bellied Piranhas and, therefore, you must have a very large aquarium to keep the species.   Many Red-bellied Piranhas quickly outgrow their keeper’s fish tanks.  That cute little 1-inch piranha will easily grow to 6 inches in a year with proper care.  Consequently, many are released in waters of North America.  The released Red-bellied Piranha eventually will be caught by some bait-dunking fisherman.  Each year Piranha fears are arise as the Red-bellied Piranha , or it’s relative the Pacu,  Colossoma sp., is captured in some location river or lake. 

Earlier this year, a Red-bellied Piranha was caught by an angler in Lake Bentonville, Arkansas.  Many times the reports of a 3-6 pound piranha in a local lake go viral in the media.   Every time (Yes! Every damn time!) this turns out to be the vegetarian Pacu, a characid that grows to over 50 pounds.   Just look at the teeth!  Small pacu resemble the Red-bellied Piranha.   Just last month a 4-pound pacu was caught in a central Indiana lake.   

 

Close up photo displaying teeth of the Pacu (left) and the Red-bellied Piranha (right). Source.

Of all the tropical fish raised in the industry, the Red-bellied Piranha generates the greatest reaction in the way of state and local laws and ordinances prohibiting their sale and possession.    At least 24 states prohibit the possession and sale.  Many other cities also have ordinances prohibiting Red-bellied-Piranha.    The concern expressed by Teddy Roosevelt is evident today, as cattle ranchers and farmers are worried that a released Red-bellied Piranha will eat a cow (which locals did demonstrate for Roosevelt), or eat the face or feet off of swimmers.    Many of the fishes that co-evolved with Red-bellied Piranha have behavioral or morphological defenses to minimize or prevent attacks.  Our native fishes (and humans, of course) have no such defenses against attacks by the Red-bellied Piranha. 

States that prohibit possession of Piranha.  Sourc: www.opefe.com

Most reports of the Red-bellied Piranha are based on a single fish captured and these are often only 3-6 inches.   For example, in Virginia, the only Red-bellied Piranha was a single 6-inch specimen taken from Indian Lake, a borrow pit in the Virginia Beach area (Stone 1987).  In most states, it is unlikely that the Red-bellied Piranha can survive over winter.   Cold-winters are the climatological tool in preventing establishment of invading populations of Red-bellied Piranha.    They do spawn readily in captivity and at temperatures common in many North American waters.  The risk that released Red-bellied Piranhas will establish populations is much greater in southern states.  The minimum temperature that kills a Red-bellied Piranha can be determined in lab studies.  One such study by Bennett et al. (1997) suggests that it is very likely Red-bellied Piranha can be established in waters of southern California, Texas, and Florida, although there is considerable year-to-year variability in winter severity. Two cases are known.   In 1993, officials in Hawaii located and destroyed an outdoor breeding operation for Red-bellied Piranha.   In 1977, officials in Florida eradicated a population of a different species of Piranha near Miami; this population persisted 13 years before its eradication. 

 

Map of likelihood of the Red-bellied Piranha overwintering. Bennett et al. (1997).

The Red-bellied Piranha is an important and fascinating part of the aquatic community in its native range.  Some of the observations on captive Red-bellied Piranha's informs our understanding of its role and life history.   Spawning behavior is described mostly based on captive specimens.  There are not  too many biologists snorkelling to observe Red-bellied Piranha in their native habitats that are murky with limited visibility. But see the video of Jeremy Wade with Piranha.  Sounds made by the Red-bellied Piranha are a critical means for their communication. Red-bellied Piranha use
fast sound producing muscles to contract tendons along the swim bladder (Millot and Parmentier 2014).  Red-bellied Piranha use sound for communication though the specific nature of this communication is still largely unstudied.   Because of the murky nature of their native habitats, communication helps individuals in shoals to find mates and share food locations.   Red-bellied Piranha seem to shoal in similar size groups, with smaller ones in floating meadows and largest specimens moving to marginal vegetation. 
 

Habitats used by different sizes of Red-bellied Piranha. Duponchelle et al. (2007)

The present diversity of piranha derived from a common ancestor that swam in the proto Amazon-Orinoco river drainages 9 million years ago.  Sea level changes and river basin and geological differences created many opportunities for unique types of piranha to speciate.   It is unlikely we can even begin to speculate how the Red-bellied Piranha might adapt if established in the Southern United States because so few populations have been studied to describe basic life-history.   In one of the few studies, Duponchelle et al. (2007) were surprised to find that females spawned at least twice during each breeding season in the Bolivian Amazon.   In the white waters of the Brazilian Amazon, the Red-bellied Piranha had two reproductive seasons per year (Queiroz et al. 2010).  The Red-bellied Piranha likely adjust their reproductive strategy to the availability of food in their environment.  

Number of larvae (vertical gray bars) and frequency of mature gonads (solid line) by month.  Horizontal lines represent high water (solid black) and low water (open bars).  Queiroz et al. (2010).

In closing, the Red-bellied Piranha is not a fish to be taken lightly and its commerce and risk of release will continue to keep us on high alert for newly established populations.  Most guides to tropical fish keeping list the Red-bellied Piranha among the fishes to avoid.   A solitary Red-bellied Piranha will be a boring fish to keep and they are not suited to a community aquarium.  Since its danger to humans has already been greatly exaggerated, I refrained from describing attacks that resulted in loss of digits, or other body parts including male genitalia because the movies are scary enough.  

Where possession is legal, Red-bellied Piranha can be maintained and even bred in captivity and will live for many years.    Before you commit to raising the Piranha, read the Complete Pet Owner's Guide.   In addition to responsible husbandry the Red-bellied Piranha should never be released. Euthanize unwanted specimens and deposit them in a natural history museum.       

Fascinated with the most misunderstood fish?  If you want to learn more, visit the only educational website dedicated to the Piranha and its close relatives. 

References

Bennett, W.A., R.A. Currie, P.F. Wagner, and T.L. Beitinger.  1997. Cold tolerance and potential overwintering of the Red-Bellied Piranha Pygocentrus nattereri in the United States.  Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 126(5):841-849.

Duponchelle, F., F. Lino, N. Hubert, J. Panfili, J.-F. Renno, E. Baras, J.P. Torrico, R. Dugue, and J. Nuñez. 2007. Environment-related life-history trait variations of the red-bellied piranha Pygocentrus nattereri in two river basins of the Bolivian Amazon. Journal of Fish Biology 71:1113-1134.

Fox, R.M. 1972. Attack preferences of the red-bellied piranha (Serrasalmus nattereri).  Animal Behaviour 20(2):280-283. 

Janovetz,  J.  2005.  Functional morphology of feeding in the scale-eating specialist Catoprion mento.  The Journal of Experimental Biology 208:4757-4768.

Millot, S., and E. Parmentier.  2014.  Development of the ultrastructure of sonic muscles: a kind of neoteny?  BMC Evolutionary Biology 14:24 

Queros, H., and A.E. Magurran. 2005.  Safety in numbers?  Shoaling behaviour of the Amazonian red-bellied piranha.  Biology Letters 1:155-157.  

Schleser, D. 2008. Piranhas: Complete pet owner's manual.  Barron's Educational Series.  96 pp.

Stone, S. 1987. 6-inch piranha found in pit at Indian Lakes. Virginia Pilot and Ledger Star, 23 August 1987.