Lotte Uittenbogaard (20) from Rijsenhout was slightly injured last Tuesday evening by an attack by a predatory fish. That happened when she was paddling with an acquaintance on a jetty at the Westeinderplassen in Aalsmeer around eight o’clock. “After a few minutes I felt a kind of bite in my foot.”
The ladies were in the marina at restaurant Joseph aan de Poel when Lotte was bitten. “We both didn’t see the fish, but people walking by did see something happen.”
A photo of Lotte’s foot clearly shows the minor injuries. “It started bleeding right away, it looks like teething.” Like a fishing friend of Lotte’s, several fishing enthusiasts confirm under reports in other media that it may well have been a rare bite from a fish.
(Fish) food for discussion
The question of what kind of fish it was does lead to some discussion. A pike seems the most plausible, experts argue. A catfish is less obvious, because with their small teeth they can never cause injuries of this size.
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“That friend of mine said that it is mating time, and that they are therefore more careful and therefore more aggressive”, Lotte is looking for an explanation for the attack.
NH News nature reporter Stephan Roest is not convinced, but does think it is very likely that it was ‘a small pike’. “This looks like the curve of a pike’s mouth.” Roest thinks the pike made a mistake and snapped ‘in a reflex’ at Lotte’s foot. “And when he realized there was something bigger attached to it, he let go.”
“Some fishermen use cans or Barbie dolls to fish for pike”
Female pike can grow up to 1.30 meters in length and ‘are often so eager to jump on anything’, says Roest. “Some anglers even use cans or Barbie dolls to fish for pike.” A pike expert tells Roest that it ‘rarely happens’ that the predatory fish bite people.
It cannot have been a catfish, because it has smaller teeth, the reporter confirms. “A kind of grater.”
After the attack, Lotte immediately entered the restaurant, where she disinfected the wound with alcohol. “The next day I went to the doctor and got a tetanus shot and antibiotics. The doctor said he had never seen this before.”
Lotte’s foot is recovering well, as can be seen from the photo below.