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Cody Nelson

'Pick up your garbage': Fish found growing with trash wrapped around its body

This northern pike apparently grew with a piece of trash wrapped around it
This northern pike apparently was growing with a piece Powerade packaging wrapped around its body.
Courtesy of Adam Turnbull

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Here's another reason to clean up after yourself in nature.

This northern pike apparently grew with a piece of trash wrapped around it
Close up of the fish's wounds.
Courtesy of Adam Turnbull

Canadian angler Adam Turnbull was fishing at a park in Medicine Hat, Alberta, when he pulled out a northern pike that wasn't looking normal.

A Powerade wrapper apparently got wrapped around fish's body just above its pelvic fin. But the pike kept growing everywhere except where the trash was constricting its body.

This northern pike apparently grew with a piece of trash wrapped around it
The wrapper that started the whole thing.
Courtesy of Adam Turnbull

Turnbull pulled the wrapper off the fish's body and said it was "very lively" when he let it go.

But garbage left wounds and a deep valley around the pike's body.

This never had to happen, and Turnbull offered some simple advice in a Facebook post:

"Pick up your garbage. This is a Powerade wrapper which takes up no room in your pocket until you get to a garbage can."

Turnbull's Facebook post has been shared more than 19,000 times as of Wednesday afternoon. A biologist who saw the post said the fish will likely live and thrive back in the wild, Turnbull said.

This apparently wasn't an isolated incident either.

Multiple Facebook users on Turnbull's post commented with catches of their own showing garbage wrapped around or otherwise stuck to fish.