French Fisherman Reels In Testicle-Biting Fish From River Seine

Pacu, the infamous testicle-biting fish, known to be a distant cousin of the piranha, was reeled in by a French fisherman, late last week, from the Seine. The news of the catch was reported by the Paris Prefecture of Police in its newsletter on Tuesday, Huffington Post reported.

The catch is a rare occurrence as the fish is not often spotted or reeled in, according to the report.

“He sent us an image of the picture through his smart phone and it turned out to be a Pacu,” a police spokesman told Daily Mail about the frightening-looking fish that has human-like teeth. “It is a fish with a very dangerous bite!”

The fish, technically a vegetarian according to the Daily Mail, is known for nibbling male genitalia, and sometimes ripping it off and swallowing it, earning it a variety of nicknames including the “nutcracker” and “ball cutter.”

But, William William Fink, a piranha researcher at the University of Michigan told CNN, in early August, that unlike the piranha, there was no record of the pacu attacking humans.

"They're fruit eaters. Those big crushing teeth they have is for crushing seeds," he told CNN. "The nuts that they're eating, the fruits that they're eating, are splashing down from above, and humans don't act like that when they're swimming," Fink said.

However, various media reports state that fishermen have bled to death after being attacked by packs of the testicle-biting fish, which are mostly found in South American rivers.

The fish, which can weigh as much as 55 pounds, was found in Denmark last month resulting in swimmers being advised to keep their pants on while swimming in the local waterways. “Anyone choosing to bathe in the Oresund these days had best keep their swimsuits well tied,” Peter Rask Moller, a spokesperson for the Natural History Museum of Denmark, told CNN at the time.