What's Biting Michigan Pond Swimmers?

July 17, 2004 — -- Swimmers at a campground pond in southern Michigan were reporting bites, pinches and attacks from something mysterious beneath the surface.

Swimmer Brenda Deetz.said after being nibbled upon, she "screamed and jumped up on top of the raft."

"I had little red spots," she told ABC News station WTVG-TV of Toledo, Ohio. "There's a lot of little kids that were crying coming out of the water … because it scared them."

But though the attacker beneath the water line may have had the scare factor of the Loch Ness monster or Jaws, the culprit turned out to be something far more mundane.

"Little baby bluegills," said Raymond Crots, owner of the KOA Campground where the pond is located, near the Ohio border.

Bluegills are fish common to Ohio-area ponds, according to the Web site of the state's Division of Wildlife, which describes the bluegill as "a deep slab-sided fish with a small mouth and a long pectoral fin." Bluegills feed mainly on zooplankton and aquatic insects.

Crots told WTVG someone must have sneaked a couple of the fish into the pond. There are no predators for it there, so the fish seem to be breeding by the dozens. They're attracted to the sweat on swimmers' bodies, and also tend to attack when the swimmers stop moving and stand still.

"Their mouth is rough, and when they're 2 inches long you think you've been bitten by something huge, and it hurts," Crots said. "I'm sorry this is happening. It won't hurt anybody, but it does feel bad when they do it to you."

For now, after the pond closes each day, the campground staff goes on the hunt for bluegills in an effort to remove them.

In the meantime, it appears people are remaining calm, even one youth who complained, "a bluegill bit my nipple, and it stung."

"It's still fun because the water's warm and you're camping," he said, adding he was about to go in the water again.

Good luck. Godspeed. And wear a T-shirt.

Rebecca Regnier is a reporter for the ABC News station WTVG-TV in Toledo, Ohio.