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Big Fish Takes On More Than It Can Chew - And Chokes On Another Fish

Big Fish Takes On More Than It Can Chew - And Chokes On Another Fish

We all know how it feels to have eyes bigger than our stomachs - but it proved fatal as he choked on his dinner - another fish.

Mike Wood

Mike Wood

We've all bitten off more than we can chew on occasion, but for one Aussie fish, the decision has proven fatal.

The sight of a decent fish supper is often too much to turn down, but once you've munched the haddock, stuffed as many chips as is physically possible down your gullet, wiped it all up with bread and butter and then attempted to do anything, you're certainly aware that the struggle between eyes and stomach is real.

For a flathead fish in the Australian town of Burrill Lake, New South Wales, the sight of a juicy looking fish for tea was too much to turn down.

The flathead, which weighed in at 10kg and stretched to a full metre in length, made the decision to tuck in, only to find that the bream that it picked was just too big. The flathead choked on the smaller fish and died a slow death.

StoryTrender

Michael Pool, a 63-year-old dog walker who discovered the unusual scene, said: "I was walking my dogs at sunrise along the water as usual and I saw the flathead from a distance.

"But as I got closer I noticed the other fish sticking out of its mouth. I was absolutely gob-smacked."

Michael tried to free the bream from the clutches, but couldn't get it out.

"It looks like she charged at the bream full force to eat it," he said.

"It was just too big for her throat and it became stuck. She would have started choking on it and just suffocated to death. It's like if a human tried to jam a whole apple down their throat."

StoryTrender

The flathead was a noted local character, according to Michael Pool: "The fish was a big female breeder and I'd seen her many times. She would be about 18 years old. It's rare to see a flathead fish so close to shore. She must have swum up to the shallows during the night and chased the bream."

"When I went back down a few hours later the birds had got to it and there was just her skeleton left," he added.

"I did feel sorry for her. Her eyes were just too big for her stomach. It isn't a very nice way to go. But I guess that's nature. I felt quite lucky to see it."

Featured Image Credit: StoryTrender

Topics: Fish, News, Wildlife, Animals, Nature