An eight-year-old California boy was left bleeding and screaming in pain after being attacked by a fish on a beach in Montreal, Canada.
Max Mandl played with his father George, a Hollywood editor, near an inflatable structure anchored in the artificial lake of Parc Jean-Drapeau.
As his legs dangled in the water, he began to scream for help. He felt a stabbing pain.
“He was in the water, next to the raft, and he immediately started screaming, kicking and hitting,” the father recalled.
As soon as he started screaming, the lifeguards came to pull Max out of the water by his life jacket and bring him to the jetty. The boy was covered in blood.
Max Mandl, 8, was bleeding and screaming in pain after being attacked by a fish on a beach in Montreal, Canada
‘Blood was gushing from his leg in several places. We think he was attacked by a fish.
“The weird thing was, as soon as he got out of the water, he was still screaming and struggling. Then something clicked in my parental brain, and I ran over and saw there was blood everywhere.”
“One minute you’re playing and the next minute you’re at the beginning of Jaws,” George said CTV News.
Emergency responders and two emergency room doctors later reported that they had never seen such deep, semicircular bite wounds on a person before.
Béatrix Beisner, a professor of biological sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal and a professor at the University of Quebec at Montréal, first proposed the theory that Max had scratched himself somewhere.
However, after some investigation, Beisner suggested that the young child may have been bitten by a muskellunge.
“One minute you’re playing and the next you’re at the beginning of Jaws,” said father George Mandl
Muskies are stealthy predators that hunt near submerged weeds and logs. In their natural habitat, they can live up to 30 years.
Muskellunge, also called musk or muskie, is a cold-water fish that can reach speeds of up to 48 kilometers per hour.
They are known for their large snout full of canine teeth, which are as sharp as needles. They are visual eaters and hunt mainly during the day.
Muskies are stealthy predators that hunt near submerged weeds and logs. In their natural habitat, they can live up to 30 years.
Larger muskies are known to attack and eat almost any living animal, invertebrates, amphibians, small rodents, waterfowl, muskrats, and smaller muskies.
They are mainly found in the northern and northeastern United States and in Canada.