There’s something fishy about that three-eyed fish that someone supposedly pulled out of the Gowanus Canal on Monday morning.
John Waldman, an aquatic conservation biologist and a professor of biology at Queens College, identified the three-eyed mutant as a species of bullhead catfish, a freshwater fish that almost certainly would not be able to survive in the infamously polluted Gowanus.
“It’s absolutely a hoax,” said Waldman, who has written a book about New York Harbor. “That fish can’t possibly live in that kind of salinity and it looks like it’s been dead a long time.” The puzzled professor added, “I mean, where better to find a catfish with three eyes other than in the Gowanus canal? It’s just too perfect.”
The probable hoax got some Internet play after Gothamist posted a video of the fish, which looks like a black catfish, with an eye clearly on the top of its head.
