A resort town in Brazil hopes a steel-and-plastic net will stop piranhas from taking a bite out of bathers -- and its tourism industry.
Authorities in Palmas in central Brazil say 180 cases of bathers at the resort being bitten by piranhas have been reported so far this year at La Prata beach on an artificial lake that is a major tourist draw.
The figure is three times more than in all of last year.
Town development chief Milton Neres blamed the surge in bites on a booming piranha population as the fish increasingly use the reservoir as a breeding ground.
"They weren't attacks by groups of piranhas but of a single one biting someone's foot. Still, the number of cases is increasing and we live off tourism," Neres said on Monday by telephone.
Neres said the town is installing a US$11,300 net to protect bathers on the artificial lake, which is formed with water from the Tocantins river.
The net, fastened to more than 100 wooden posts forming a half-moon extending nearly 250m off La Prata beach, will be fully installed by this weekend, Neres said.
Authorities will then patrol the waters inside the swimming area. The will then catch and relocate any piranha they find.
He said the town expects 280,000 visitors in the July-August high season, but ruled out eradicating the piranhas.
"It's about combining protection for our swimmers while caring for the species," Neres said.
RALLYING CRY: Former US president Donald Trump has raised suspicions about why Chinese migrants are going to the US and advocacy groups worry about his rhetoric The US Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday said that it sent 116 Chinese migrants from the US back home in the first “large charter flight” in five years. The flight, which happened over the weekend, comes as Chinese immigration has become the subject of intense political debate in the upcoming US presidential election. “We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. The department said it was working with China to “reduce and deter irregular migration and to disrupt
SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE: The Philippines prefers to handle operations on its own, and would exhaust all possible options before asking for help, the military chief said The Philippines has turned down offers from the US to assist operations in the South China Sea, after a flare-up with China over missions to resupply Filipino troops on a contested shoal, its military chief said. Tensions in the disputed waterway have boiled over into violence in the past year, with a Filipino sailor losing a finger in the latest June 17 clash that Manila described as “intentional high-speed ramming” by the Chinese coast guard. The US, a treaty ally, has offered support, but Manila prefers to handle operations on its own, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief General Romeo Brawner told
Georgian student Elene Deisadze was browsing TikTok in 2022 when she stumbled across the profile of a girl, Anna Panchulidze, who looked exactly like her. Months later, after chatting and becoming friends, they both separately learned they were adopted, and last year decided to take a DNA test. It revealed they were not only related, but identical twins. “I had a happy childhood, but now my entire past felt like a deception,” said Anna, an English student at university. Far from an innocent case of separation at birth, the sisters are among tens of thousands of Georgian children who were
Prominent activist Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) yesterday asked for a lesser sentence in court after he earlier pleaded guilty in Hong Kong’s biggest national security case. Wong was one of 47 activists charged in 2021 under a Beijing-imposed National Security Law with conspiracy to commit subversion for their involvement in an unofficial primary. The activists were accused of attempting to paralyze Hong Kong’s government and topple the territory’s leader by aiming to win a legislative majority and using it to block budgets indiscriminately. Wong and 44 others admitted their liability or were convicted by the court. They could be sentenced to life in