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Photo: Is This A Shark In Central Park's Harlem Meer?
By
Jen Carlson
Published May 7, 2013
Modified May 7, 2013
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By
Jen Carlson
Published May 7, 2013
Modified May 7, 2013
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[DISAPPOINTING UPDATE BELOW] Last week word got out that snakehead fish have been spotted in Central Park's Harlem Meer. The reason this fish is terrifying is threefold: 1) They can breath air and crawl around... after you... into your nightmares. 2) They look LIKE THIS. 3) They could damage the entire ecosystem of the park.
The Department of Environmental Conservation alerted humans: "If you catch one, DO NOT RELEASE it. Kill it immediately, freeze it and report your catch. Take a digital photo if possible," (and try to Vine the murder). But WHAT IF this monster scared any would-be human captors far away from the Meer? Maybe someone would bring in one of the natural predators of the fish? Maybe throw a freshwater shark in Harlem Meer and let this thing play out National Geographic-style?
A reader sent along this picture, taken on April 16th, showing what looks an awful lot like a shark fin. He told us, "The thing was huge, at least two feet long... it just kept circling."
We're gonna need a bigger paddleboat.
We've contacted the the Central Park Conservancy, the Parks Department, the DEP, and your nephew to see if this was just his remote control shark toy, and will update if we hear back from anyone with some answers.
UPDATE, 9:23 a.m.: A rep for the CPC says, "I witnessed the same thing on April 30th. It’s likely that those fins belong to large carp (at least two feet in length). This time of year, you’ll see a lot of carp activity at the surface of the Meer." But Google Image Search tells a different story.
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we're gonna need a bigger paddleboat
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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