and you thought fish were fun!
but they are not in Guernsey when the Bailiwick Bass Club Open Competition is on as Matthew Clark, 29, pretended that he had caught a 13 lb. bass in a gruelling sea fishing contest found out, he did not catch it from the sea at all, he had infact scaled cliffs and climbed a rope ladder to reach the island's St Peter Port Aquarium building before he entered the aquarium through a back door and stealing the fish from one of the aquariums, the enormous fish tipped the scales at 13lb 13oz - trouncing the nearest competitor who only managed a catch of 10lb 3oz so the first prize of £800 was in the bag, but a sharp eyed fellow competitor rubbled him,
fellow entrant Shane Bentley, 38, thought that he had seen the winning fish before, speaking before the hearing, he said: 'Me and my wife were taking the kids to the aquarium and we'd seen a bass in a tank - it stood out because it had some very distinct markings on its head, it wasn't until the bass was lifted out of the tank for the photo that I thought "that's the fish from the aquarium", I immediately informed club members of my suspicions but they laughed, the next morning I took ten minutes off work to go to the aquarium, they hadn't opened but the women let me in and I said, "where's that big bass with marks on its head?", I looked in the tank but I couldn't see the fish, then the woman looked as well and she couldn't find the fish She then called the owner down and he couldn't see the fish,'
Mr Bentley, who has been fishing for more than 25 years, immediately contacted the competition organisers, who alerted police, officers seized the head from the winning fish carcass and photographs of the missing bass as evidence as they investigated, sadly instead of putting the fish back into the aquarium Clark panicked, he took it to a fish seller who didn't realise it was stolen and chopped it up, only the head and tail was left but it was enough for Clarke to be sentenced to 100 hours of community service after he admitted burglary and fraud charges.
Damn tattletale!!
ReplyDelete"Shane Bentley, 38, thought that he had seen the winning fish before, speaking before the hearing, he said: 'Me and my wife were taking the kids to the aquarium and we'd seen a bass in a tank..."
ReplyDeleteME and my wife? Do people really talk like that?
That is not even a bass that he is holding. It is an Asian carp. WTF???
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous, the answers to your concerns are,
ReplyDelete?
Yes
It is not an Asian carp
Best regards, Stan and Diana.
It is an Asian carp that he is holding. These are the fish plaguing the Mississippi River. Maybe you know it by a different name, but that is what it is called in the U.S. It is NOT a bass!
ReplyDeleteAfter looking at the dorsal fin, it is not an Asian Carp, but what sort of bass is it? It doesn't look like a sea bass I know. The article should have been more specific as to the type of bass.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous to avoid confusion, the fish pictured is Dicentrarchus labrax its range being North Sea, Celtic Sea, Bay of Biscay, English Channel and yes I agree the introduction of Hypophthalmichthys nobili and Hypophthalmichthys molitrix have been totally disastrous for the USA, they are filter feeders, straining tiny plants (phytoplankton) and animals (zooplankton) out of the water, originally imported into the southeastern U.S. in the 1970s to remove algae and suspended matter out of catfish farm ponds and wastewater treatment ponds. While the exact manner of released into the wild is still debated, it is widely believed during large flood events in the mid-1990s, some of the farm ponds overflowed their banks and these species were released into local waterways in the Mississippi River Basin, in case you are in the US and thinking of keeping some it is illegal under federal law to transport live specimens across state lines, we hope this clears things up for you, best regards, Stan and Diana.
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