Maybe the alligators are simply afraid?

No sooner did I post my previous message than I came across an article on the capture of a "Frankenfish" in lake Michigan.

[www.msnbc.msn.com]

Known as a snakehead fish, and found primarily in Russia, China and Korea this invasive, nasty-looking species is said to prefer "stagnant, shallow ponds, swamps and slow streams. Can remain out of the water for three to four days."

Hmmmmmmmmmm. And just when we thought it was safe to go in the water.

On the learning channel last night there was a show about urban myths and gators in the sewers they suggested the book The world beneath the City written by Robert Daley.

i don't think alligators could survive with all the pollution in new york

Goin' gator crazy in the sewers


By ANDY SOLTIS


Posted: 2:58 AM, February 10, 2010

Tales of alligators cruising city sewers are as New York as egg creams and Spaldeens.
The Big Apple's most enduring urban legend turned 75 yesterday, and a City Hall ceremony declared it Alligators in the Sewers Day.

The legend began in 1935, when teenagers from East 123rd Street were shoveling fresh snow into a manhole.
Their leader, Salvatore Condulucci, 16, looked down into the muck and saw something that made his eyes widen.

"Honest, it's an alligator!" he exclaimed.

The teens used a noose to pull up an honest-to-goodness, 7- to 8-foot-long alligator. The discovery quickly developed a mythical back story:

The gator was one of several tiny critters found in Florida by rich Manhattanites on vacation and brought back to the city as pets for their kids.

When the baby gators began to grow uncomfortably large, they were disposed in the urban manner -- flushed down the toilet. But they didn't die and emerged in New York's subterranean subculture, growing to the size of the 125-pounder that Condulucci and his pals discovered.

The legend that the gators remained below spread with each generation of New Yorkers and has spawned decades of gator mythology.<p>

andy.soltis@nypost.com


Tales of alligators cruising city sewers are as New York as egg creams and Spaldeens.

The Big Apple's most enduring urban legend turned 75 yesterday, and a City Hall ceremony declared it Alligators in the Sewers Day.

The legend began in 1935, when teenagers from East 123rd Street were shoveling fresh snow into a manhole.

Their leader, Salvatore Condulucci, 16, looked down into the muck and saw something that made his eyes widen.

"Honest, it's an alligator!" he exclaimed.

The teens used a noose to pull up an honest-to-goodness, 7- to 8-foot-long alligator. The discovery quickly developed a mythical back story:

The gator was one of several tiny critters found in Florida by rich Manhattanites on vacation and brought back to the city as pets for their kids.

When the baby gators began to grow uncomfortably large, they were disposed in the urban manner -- flushed down the toilet. But they didn't die and emerged in New York's subterranean subculture, growing to the size of the 125-pounder that Condulucci and his pals discovered.

The legend that the gators remained below spread with each generation of New Yorkers and has spawned decades of gator mythology.

andy.soltis@nypost.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2011 10:52AM by askanewyorker.