Russian anglers have landed terrifying pike with ‘horns’ sparking local fears that the fish were mutated by fuel in debris falling from space rockets.
The two mysterious fish were caught in the River Irtysh in Siberia by 25-year-old angler Alexey Volkov who described them as ‘underwater dragons’.
Locals are blaming radiation or other pollution, possibly a result of the fuel in debris dropping from space rockets launched at Baikonur in neighbouring Kazakhstan.
But experts say they doubt the fish have been mutated by pollution and there are rare examples of such discoveries having been made before.
Russian anglers have landed terrifying pike with ‘horns’ (pictured) sparking local fears that the fish were mutated by fuel in debris falling from space rockets
The two mysterious fish were caught in the River Irtysh in Siberia by 25-year-old angler Alexey Volkov who described them as ‘underwater dragons’
Locals are blaming radiation or other pollution, possibly a result of the fuel in debris dropping from space rockets launched at Baikonur in neighbouring Kazakhstan
Volkov, from Tara, said the larger fish had two ‘horns’ while the smaller one had four.
‘I was impressed with the catch. The fish were 14kg and 7kg. They had horns bent back towards their tail. The smaller fish had four horns.
‘Both fish were immediately nicknamed dragons.’
Locals fear that pollution – possibly radioactive – was behind the strange catch.
Anglers warned Volkov against eating the the pike , but he did so anyway – apparently without ill-effects.
He preserved and dried the heads of the fish, which he keeps in his garage, reported The Siberian Times.
For years there have been concern over the impact of launch-stage rocket debris in Omsk region. Local reports have questioned whether this is behind illnesses in babies.
Volkov , from Tara, said the larger fish had two ‘horns’ while the smaller one had four
But a zirconium plant – now disused – is also close to the place where the fish were landed, revealed SuperOmsk news agency.
Expert Arkady Balushkin, chief of the Ichthyology laboratory of the Russian Academy of Sciences Zoological Institute, was sceptical about pollution as the cause.
‘Any change happening under influence of chemical substances or radiation does not lead to new formations like this,’ he said.
‘A pike would still remain a pike. It might develop a tumour or oedema, and these are typical illnesses for these species. But it is not supposed to have any horns.
‘To confirm that it was a pike with horns, and not another fish, I would need to see it for myself.’
Another claim is that this could be a fish-version of cutaneous horns, which, on rare occasions, grow on humans.
An article con Pike with Horns, by Dr E J Crossman, highlighted by the Pike Anglers’ Club of Great Britain, also suggests the phenomenon in this type of fish, while, exceptionally rare, is not unknown.
He wrote in 1987: ‘In moments of excitement I think many Pike anglers have compared the personality of the Pike to that of one of the more infamous, mythical or real, horned beasts.
‘The same anglers would not, however, expect to actually find horns on their quarry once it was landed. Nevertheless in six isolated cases to date that is exactly what has happened.
‘All six fish had very obvious structures referred to as “horns, spines or prongs”.’
He cited a number of cases in North America from the last century.