Dude!
Piranhas are not sea creatures!
This is the same fallacy perpetuated by the B-52s’ Rock Lobster – “Watch out for that piranha!”
Is there such a thing as death by halibut?
Why single out the pirahna and not also the candiru, another nasty little critter that does not live in the oceans.
That was obviously a throwaway line not intended to relay anything factual.
Yeah, I know.
But it’s still a good song! 
Look on YouTube for ‘Asian carp’. Engine noise makes silver Asian carp go batsh*t.
Oh, ye of little faith! Cecil’s actual quote was:
Note that he is not calling piranha or candiru “sea creatures” but “other aquatic denizens.”
Maybe this is why I paid $8 for a sliver of grilled halibut at the grocery store this summer ($27 per pound, it was). I thought maybe it was the Last of the Halibut, population decimated by anything-to-make-a-buck fisherman. Now I see there might still be a few halibut swimming around but the fishermen need combat pay and bigger first aid kits.
Yeah, yeah, Cecil is infallible.
I just wanted to make a B-52s joke!!! 
Ha!
“So, just like the ending of Hamlet, only with a fish.”
Very funny column. Is there a new incarnation, after the very strained “humor” of recent entries?
Decades ago my dad caught a 200+ lb halibut in Alaska, and they did in fact have to bludgeon the thing to death with oars. Supposedly, it was the largest rod-and-reel catch in the state for the year.
New “incarnation” of what?
“Sharks, barracudas, stingrays, jellyfish, sea urchins, octopuses, squid, moray eels, piranha, our little friend the candiru …”
The plural of octopus is octopode not octopuses, octopuses is the common pluralization in the UK and US but octopode is the proper designated pluralization in accordance to biological terminology.
[quote=“opticsverity, post:12, topic:602569”]
"Sharks, barracudas, stingrays, jellyfish, sea urchins, octopuses, squid, moray eels, piranha, our little friend the candiru
I don’t know what happened to my post, but I meant to say: wouldn’t it be “octopoda”? Anyways, octopuses and octopi are both accepted bc people have been using them so much.
No, the plural of octopus is octopuses.
Alright, who the heck is right here? I don’t want to go around using the plural of Octopus wrong. Imagine my shame!
From wikipedia:
I would have linked to the OED directly, but it looks like it’s subscription required.
Personally, I would go with “octopuses”. The alternatives are certainly no more correct, and strike me as a bit pretentious.
I always enjoyed the fact that “octopus” has three dictionary-approved, legit, plurals.
On Cecil’s humor: I don’t know what “incarnation” means, but Cecil does go through phases in his humor. He has bits that are only funny to him, and then he has bits that excel (such as “Like Hamlet, only with a fish.”) His knowledge is infallible (occasionally his editor goofs), but his sense of humor is not.
“incarnation”=someone different writing the column now, or sometimes filling in. I understand that you guys have to pretend otherwise.
They don’t *have *to. They do it just for the halibut.