What's wrong with cooling your feet in a lake filled with fish?
Asked by
Jeruba (
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August 12th, 2013
City girl here. I’d appreciate it if those who know the answer could give it without making scornful remarks this time.
In the news stories about the abducted 16-year-old California girl who was rescued in Idaho, several mentions have been made about one of the horseback riders who spotted her and her kidnapper in the wilderness:
The pair were first seen on a trail — and then later at the lake, where one of the horseback riders cautioned Hannah about dipping her bare feet in the fish-filled water. [ source ]
What’s wrong with sharing a lake with fish? Why was this a sign that the girl was, so to speak, a fish out of water? I would think there’d be more of a potential problem with a lake where fish couldn’t live. Is this about physical danger, or hygiene, or something else?
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34 Answers
Just some educated ID ten T. It is less dangerous than swimming off the Florida beaches with all the sharks and other predatory fish.
You have to put it into context.
They were from Idaho. Robert Redford’s stomping grounds.
They imagined that her toe-jam might poison the fish and fuck up the ecosystem.
It had absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with concern for the girl.
I thought they might have been joking with her meaning the fish would nibble her toes.
It’s reported in several places as a sign of the riding couples’ concern and doesn’t sound like a joke. It’s also cited as evidence that the odd pair wasn’t experienced in getting along in that kind of country.
My newspaper says this:
[Christa] John also asked Anderson why she was soaking her feet in a lake filled with fish.
The clear implication is that she shouldn’t have been. It seems to have been one of several indications to them that something “just wasn’t normal or natural” about the young girl and the middle-aged man hiking out there in rough country. It was the sense that something was wrong about them that contributed to the riders’ alerting the authorities.
Nothing at all. Hopefully he was joking. If not, then he’s just among that growing number of paranoid people who see imaginary dangers all around them.
I don’t know. We just swam in a lake in Vermont with fish in it. It had a public swimming beach so it was OK.
Guess it depends on who the fish are and the locals know??
What?
Nothing. And some people pay extra for that
I’m with those who suggest it was intended mostly as a joshing type of made-up “OMG horror” story.
We used to kid people who came to the lake when I was a kid (where fish have existed despite my earnest attempts to catch ‘em all at that age), “Don’t drink the water. You know that fish go to the bathroom there!”
Then of course those of us who swam there every day without a care about how much water we ingested would swim and dive all day, and laugh to ourselves at those who thought they had to swim with their heads out of the water and their mouths closed tightly.
I suspect that the outsiders were recognized as outsiders and for that reason (or maybe just to test the hypothesis) were presented with this “problem of fish in the water” to see how they’d react.
Unless the place is a boiling hot spring or has acid or alkaline levels that would strip one’s skin, there should be no problem with cooling one’s feet in a pond that does or does not have fish.
The Frank Church—River of No Return Wilderness Area is 2.367 million acres and is the second largest protected wilderness in the contiguous United States, after Death Valley. It is home to a large population of mountain lion and black bear. source
Could it be that the lake would not be safe to lounge in with possible large prey in the area?
@huzzah That doesn’t seem likely given the statement “one of the horseback riders cautioned Hannah about dipping her bare feet in the fish-filled water. [ source ]”
I would think if he was worried about wild life, he would have said that instead.
She was hiking on the trails while wearing unsuitable footwear. She probably got blisters on her feet. You don’t put feet with blisters into water with waterlife in it. It will get infected.
The only thing I can find regards that is the danger to the actual fish. Or ecosystem. Unless I am reading this
article in the wrong context.
Fish also nibble dead skin off the feet. There can be broken shells and old bait from fishermen and the shells of turtles. During frog season perhaps the mating cycle would be interrupted.
I’d be afraid of piranhas. They’re pretty mean-looking.
THERE ARE NO PIRANHAS IN MONTANA @bob_ !!
Aquarium piranhas have been introduced into parts of the United States, with specimens occasionally found in the Potomac River, Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri and even as far north as Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin [...] (Source)
Yeah, I ain’t getting my feet in no lake.
This is true wilderness (in Idaho, not Montana), not some little lake just outside city limits. I think @filmfann hit the nail on the head. I don’t think the people on horseback were joking. From what I read, one of the horseback riders was very concerned for the girl.
But why was he concerned about the fish in the lake @huzzah? And what does “true wilderness” have to do with fish?
@Dutchess_III
True wilderness fish have more violent-prone tendencies than you more pacific, laid back domesticated ones.
I don’t buy that @rojo. Bears, cougars, yes, but fish? No.
Well, compare your average everyday domesticated goldfish with its wild counterpart the Piranha.
I don’t know, I’ve sum in ponds all my life. Sunnies, minnows?
As I said above, unless the locals knew this lake had killer fish of some kind, I don’t get the problem either.
You’ve sum in ponds, @janbb? Perhaps you’re thinking of adders, and not fishes at all.
Or consider the Koi, serenely swimming though its placid, peaceful, manicured ponds and streams in small, well mannered schools. Yes, beautiful and tame and hardly even recognizable as the thoroughly domesticated descendants of the wild and beautiful Buffalo Carp that use to thunder through the lakes and streams of the west in huge herds that would go on for miles. Why in some lakes the indigenous peoples used to be able to walk across on the backs of these formidable denizens of the wetlands; if they had the courage, for one slip, one misstep and they would disappear forever under the undulating mass of carpflesh. No, better to wait the hours, nay days sometimes, beside the stream and let them pass by unmolested, save for the taking of the occasional straggler, to their unknown destination which, many times, was the fabled and lost Buffalo Carp Graveyard of ancient lore.
I doubt there are any Koi or Goldfish in the lakes in Idaho! No piranha’s either.
From “this website, following is a list of the fish that are found in Idaho lakes, streams and ponds:
Rainbow Trout
Steelhead Trout
Cutthroat Trout
Kokanee Salmon
Coho Salmon
Chinook Salmon
Brown Trout
Bull Trout
Lake Trout
Brook Trout
Mountain Whitefish
Lake Whitefish
Yellow Perch
Walleye
Yucky Bullhead Catfish
Yucky Catfish
Bass
Bluegill
Black Crappie
Northern Pike (Could be a problem for toes…)
White Sturgeon
Not a goldfish or a koi or a piranha or even a shark, which is a relative of the gold fish, to be found.
Bet he was referring to the Northern Pike…
Anyway, I’m moving to Idaho. All we have in Kansas are catfish and they are nasty.
Oh man! Don’t even get me started on the Cutthroat and how they earned their gruesome name and reputation!
@Dutchess_III But why was he concerned about the fish in the lake @huzzah? And what does “true wilderness” have to do with fish?
What I meant by true wilderness is the fact that The Frank Church—River of No Return Wilderness Area is very dangerous place for people who don’t know what they are doing. The horseback riders could tell the girl and kidnapper were not prepared to be where they were. I didn’t mean that the fish are bigger and meaner in Idaho. That’s silly. The horseback riders had genuine concern for the safety of the girl. I’ve been trying to be helpful for Jeruba (even if I don’t have the correct answer), not joke around like some. I have a little wilderness experience and tried to make an educated guess.
As do many of us @huzzah but still, this statement is more than a little bizarre.
I don’t doubt that they looked out of place, but what in the world does that have to do with cooling your feet off in a lake? People everywhere do it all the time! They swim in the lakes. The only thing I could figure is that the lake may have Northern Pike in it, and I could imagine they could be a potential hazard for dangling toes, but not just fish in general. Carp, bass, catfish….those won’t hurt you.
It was a bizarre statement with a serious lack of context.
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