Eww — eels flung in lake
‘I’m saving lives,’ sez B’klyn weirdo
It was an eely bad idea — and also eelegal.
A strange man was spotted dumping two large garbage bags of eels into Prospect Park Lake on Sunday evening, shocked witnesses told the Daily News.
Fisherman Dominick Pabon used his phone to film the slippery mess, demanding the weirdo stop tossing the creatures into the lake. He guessed there were at least 100 eels in the two bags.
“Yo, you’re not supposed to be dumping eels here Dude — is that all eels?” Pabon said, not believing his eyes.
“I’m saving lives, I just wanna save lives,” the man inexplicably replied.
The bizarre episode caused a scene by the picturesque lake. One of the bags tore open as the man dragged it to the 55-acre body of water, causing the slithering creatures eels to spill onto a sidewalk.
“This woman started screaming because it looked like snakes, but it was 20 eels,” said Pabon, 28.
The man then tossed the eels about 20 feet into the lake, Pabon said. The man chucked others as they wriggled onto the bank of the lake from the water.
Andrew Orkin, who stumbled onto the “pile of wriggling things” while stretching after a jog, guessed that the man worked for a butcher or restaurant because he was wearing allwhite, as if he’d been in a kitchen.
“He was mega-panicked and kind of skittish. I didn’t want to get too close to him,” Orkin, 32, said.
“He claimed he bought them from a store and was saving their lives. ... That’s probably not the case.”
Both Pabon and Orkin suspected this was not the man’s first eel liberation operation. Pabon, an angler at the lake for 14 years, said he’s previously reeled in American and brown eels. He was unsure of the species of the new eel arrivals.
Orkin called 911 to report illegal dumping, but the man walked off.
“You don’t need to call cops. I save lives,” the man said on the video.
Prospect Park has been the sight of gross animal dumpings before. In 2010, piles of animal guts and chicken heads were found near the same spot where the man unloaded the eels. A goat killed in an apparent sacrificial ritual was also discovered that year. More recently, inconsiderate parkgoers have left behind piles of litter in the park facing major budget restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Prospect Park Alliance said an aquatic expert was monitoring the eel ordeal and in touch with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which monitors the health of the lake.
“The release of pets and other animals in the park is illegal without a permit. It is a hazard both to those animals, and the plants and wildlife that call the park home. The parks waterways and natural areas are fragile habitats, and this can disrupt these naturally occurring systems, introducing disease and other pathogens which can be harmful,”fl the alliance said in a statement.
The eels will disrupt the ecology of the lake, Pabon said.
“It f—-s up the whole ecosystem. They feed and multiply like rabbits. They’re depleting the other fishes’ food supply,” he said.