Is Lake Erie Monster Behind Recent Attacks?[Original headline: Lake Erie Monster?]
Shockwaves are vibrating through the town of Port Dover, Ontario, Canada, for people are being bitten by an unknown creature whilst paddling offshore of a beach near the Port Dover pump house, which lies about 1 kilometre from the town.
In the just 24 hours three people were attacked by the aquatic assailant. One of these was Port Dover resident Brenda McCormack, 47, who was bitten on the side of her right calf while paddling in the murky Lake Erie water near the beach in the early evening of July.
"I just felt a great big chomp," she said, and was left with three big puncture marks and a circle of abrasions that looked like the shape of a jaw.
Brenda was the creature's first victim. The next day, a man and then a child - who was treated and released from the emergency ward of the Norfolk General Hospital in Simcoe - were also attacked by the creature in the same area.
Speculation as to the creature's identity is rife through the town with some people thinking the creature could have been part of a group of piranhas released into the wild after they grew too big for their owner's aquariums.
Dr. Harold Hynscht, however, who treated the man who was attacked, has ruled out piranhas, lamprey eels, snapping turtles and walleye, goby and muskellunge fish. But commented that whatever it was, "it was a big honking fish."
Patricia Hall, the nurse who treated Brenda McCormack, said, "Oh yeah, it's the Lake Erie monster. That's what people are joking about."
Lake Erie boaters have told stories for years about sighting dark green or brown monsters some nine to 12 metres long that swim in a wavy motion.
The only plausible creature it can be, according to Dr Hynscht, is the bowfin, an aggressive fish that grows to be 45-60 centimetres long, and is often called a living fossil because it resembles fish that lived hundreds of millions of years ago.
Bowfins, often called dogfish (even though bowfins are not sharks like ocean-dwelling dogfish), usually eat other fish, frogs, small rodents, turtles, leeches and crayfish.
"One of the consistent elements of the stories I've heard is that it happened so fast they hardly had time to react," Dr. Hynscht says.
"Whatever is doing this is doing so because of territory. It's not doing this because it's hungry."
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Fishing Magic | Graham Marsden - Aug 13 2001
Unidentified Giant Fish Putting Bite On Lake Swimmers[Original headline: Fish attacks three Erie swimmers]
PORT DOVER -- [CP] Dr. Harold Hynscht has a medical mystery on his hands.
He treated three patients recently who suffered major bites on their legs after swimming in Lake Erie beside the Port Dover pump house.
All were in about a metre of water when the attacks occurred.
Hynscht, a diver with extensive knowledge of aquatic life, is at a loss to identify the animal that caused them.
The bites were not minor. Six inches separated the wounds inflicted by the top and bottom teeth, suggesting the animal has a large mouth.
"That's a big, honking fish," Hynscht said.
The doctor has ruled out round gobies, lamprey eels, snapping turtles, walleye and other muskellunge-type fish as well as piranhas, which are sometimes released into the wild after they get too big for their aquariums.
The only species that seems plausible, Hynscht said, is the bowfin, primitive, aggressive fish that protect their nests up to nine weeks after spawning.
"One of the consistent elements of the stories I've heard is that it happened so fast they hardly had time to react," Hynscht said.
"Whatever is doing this is doing so because of territory. It's not doing this because it's hungry."
Hynscht is trading information and theories with a wildlife biologist in Toronto in an effort to determine the attacker's identity.
• Story originally published by •
London Free Press / ON - Aug 12 2001
