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City cancels piranha bounty as other fish slaughtered



A Chinese city has canceled a $157 bounty on piranha after people killed too many other fish in a four-day hunt, Chinese state media reported Friday.
Government officials in the southern city of Liuzhou had offered a 1,000-yuan ($157) reward for every piranha caught after at least three of the sharp-toothed fish attacked two swimmers in the Liujiang River over the weekend, biting off parts of one person's finger, state-run agency Xinhua reported.
But no one caught any piranha in the four-day river hunt, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper.
And too many local fish breeds were being killed, including in nets, prompting concern about the river's ecological balance, the head of the local fishery bureau told China Daily.
Although the bounty has been canceled, residents are still encouraged to try to catch piranha with a hook and line but not nets, Liuzhou fishery chief Wei Yongwen told China Daily.
Piranha are native to South America, and fishery officials said they might have been imported to the Liuzhou area from the Amazon region, Xinhua reported.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/13/city-cancels-piranha-bounty-as-other-fish-slaughtered/