Standoff over Two Tone, Britain’s greatest carp
Fish was a dream catch, but Natural History Museum won’t have it stuffed and mounted on its wall
IN LIFE, it was the holy grail of angling: the biggest carp in Britain worth tens of thousands of pounds, so sought-after by obsessed fishermen that it was nicknamed the “marriage wrecker”.
Now, years after the angling community mourned the death of Two Tone, the mirror carp could be facing an undignified end after calls to display its body in the Natural History Museum fell on deaf ears.
Two Tone, a 45-year-old fish weigh- ing 67lb 14oz, was famous for its size and unusual colouring. It was caught and released just twice a year on average after becoming the most desired carp in the country.
Anglers would camp out for weeks on end to increase their chances of a catch. There were reports of wives bringing Christmas dinners to the lakeside and even one wedding held on site in honour of the fish.
When it died in August 2010, dozens of anglers turned out at Conningbrook Lake, near Ashford, Kent, to mourn Two Tone. At the time, its body was placed in a chest freezer for safe-keeping, amid fears any grave would be dug up and the skeleton sold on.
Now, it has been claimed that the Natural History Museum has turned down the opportunity to put Two Tone’s body on display, leaving anglers debating where to create its final resting place. The fish now faces being defrosted and put back into the lake it lived in, to decompose back into the ecosystem.
Chris Logsdon, the managing director of Mid Kent Fisheries, which runs the lake, said his father, also named Chris, had offered Two Tone to the London museum shortly after its death, but had been told there was no interest in putting it on display.
He claimed curators offered only to take the body and preserve it, storing it away from public view with no opportunity for permanent display.
The decision has caused upset in the angling community, with many believing Britain’s biggest carp would be of scientific and popular interest, as well as a recognition of the popularity of the sport. Two Tone is likely to face one of three futures: being professionally stuffed and mounted in a local community hub, being placed back into the lake to rejoin the ecosystem, or being buried underneath a plaque on site.
The final decision must take into account the prestige of Two Tone, even five years after its death. Recently, a fan paid £1,000 for a mould of its body before realising it was a fake.
Mr Logsdon, 41, said: “We were going to bury Two Tone’s body with the plaque at the funeral, but we had a tipoff that somebody had been planning to dig it up, so it’s still in my chest freezer, five years on.
“There were people quite upset about the fact the Natural History Museum, while fishing is one of the biggest participant sports, didn’t bat an eyelid.” No one at the Natural History Museum was available for comment.
It falls to few fish to be afforded a full funeral. But Two Tone was no ordinary fish. On its death, aged 45, in 2010, dozens of anglers came to pay their respects. The carp, which lived in the waters of Conningbrook Lake in Kent, weighed 67lb 14oz, a record for the species in Britain. In the world of carp that means everything. But now an unseemly argument has broken out over the fish’s hefty remains, which have lain in a freezer for five years. It had been hoped that the big fish, once stuffed, would go on public show. But the Natural History Museum could not guarantee that, or it might have formed a shiny pendant to the blue whale that is to replace the diplodocus in its central hall. Two Tone has missed its chance, so a subscription should be got up for a memorial stone engraved – what else? – Carpe diem.