Does your old uncle Harry tell everyone who will listen that he almost caught a giant of a fish once but it got away? It was huge! At least fives times, no make that ten times, as large as a normal, perch, trout, salmon, or pike (the fish changes every time he tells the story!) In fact, it nearly pulled him out of the boat with it! It seems that almost all of us has a relative or friend who tells a whopper of a fish tale! They never really seem to be telling the truth. After all, there couldn’t be a fish that big in a lake full of tiny fish. Or could there? Have you ever wondered if any of those stories could really be true?

If you have, you’re not alone. A lot of scientists have wondered the same thing. Like UFO sightings, there are just too many of these fish tales floating around to comfortably say there is nothing to them. Instead, a little scientific investigation is in order. And investigate they did. What did they find? Some pretty darn big fish, and an explanation as to why giant fish may develop! So what’s the scoop? Scientists have found that sometimes, a few fish can grow to be real giants if over fishing occurs. For example, if too many large fish are fished out of a lake, some of the large fish that remain will eat the smaller fish and become huge cannibals that eat their own kind! These fish may be four time or more times as large as they normally are! So next time old uncle Harry tries tell you about the mammoth fish that got away, be sure to let him know that you might actually believe him… just maybe. The shock that someone actually believes him will probably keep him quiet for at least a few hours!