The bizarre catch of a piranha last week at Westwood Lake in British Columbia, Canada, is a concern but experts say the public has little to worry about.

“The red-bellied piranha is a tropical fish and cannot survive in our winter climate,” the B.C. Conservation Officer Service stated in a Facebook announcement.

Piranha are native to the Amazon and other South America river basins, notorious for their sharp teeth and voracious feeding behavior.

The catch last Tuesday by college student Thomas Lee, who was fishing for trout, was at least the second catch of a piranha in Westwood Lake since late July.

Westwood Lake, in Nanaimo on the east coast of Vancouver Island, is a popular summertime swimming hole surrounded by hiking and biking trails.

Sam Cho, an avid angler, told the Nanaimo Bulletin that fishermen “worry about them spreading through the lake because if somebody caught one before, it’s not only one fish. And then if a piranha really found a mate … maybe it’s dangerous to the kids.”

B.C. Conservation Officer Service, a natural resource law enforcement agency, explained that both piranha probably were unwanted aquarium pets released into the lake.

“The COS would like to remind the public that introducing an aquatic invasive species can have harmful impacts, including threatening native fish, ecosystem and other species,” the agency stated.

The COS said that releasing invasive fish into waterways is against the law, punishable by jail sentences of up to one year and fines of up to $100,000.

Tristan Robbins, hatchery manager for the company that stocks trout in the area, told the Nanaimo Bulletin that piranha “would not fare well” in water under 75 degrees, so the onset of winter should kill any piranha that might remain in Westwood Lake.

“They’d be OK over the summer, but as soon as winter comes I don’t think that thing would be very likely to survive,” Robbins said. “But in the summer months they could wreak a lot of havoc just by eating all the fish in there.”

The COS is investigating both catches and asks people who might have helpful information to telephone its Report All Poachers and Polluters hotline.

–Images of a red-bellied piranha are courtesy of the B.C. Conservation Officers Service and Wikipedia