Caura River Expedition Day 14

Barry Chernoff carefully removes a live piranha from a gill net.

Here a red-eyed piranha is expertly extracted from a gill net.

In Spanish they are referred to as redes de ahorque or a choking net because fish swim through it and get caught in the fine, transparent mesh.

The fish have a hard time seeing the threads especially at night, so scientists place the net in the environment where they expect to find certain fish.

It sometimes takes great skill to remove the fish with sharp teeth like the piranha or barbs like the catfish without injuring the scientist!

— Reported by Jensen Montambault

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