Benson (1984 – 4 August 2009) was "Britain's biggest and best-loved"

common carp The Eurasian carp or European carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), widely known as the common carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Arkive The ...

. Benson's popularity was such that she was caught 63 times in 13 years, although the accessibility that made her popular was also the cause of controversy among

angling Angling is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook or "angle" (from Old English ''angol'') attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated via a fishing rod, although rodless techni ...

's elite. She has also been referred to as "the people's fish" and was voted by readers of ''

Angler's Mail ''Angler's Mail'' was a weekly angling magazine published in London, UK, by Future plc. The magazine covers aspects of modern coarse fishing, and is on sale every Tuesday priced £2.20. Its latest audited average weekly sales were 30,606 for the ...

'' as Britain's Favourite Carp in 2005. The fish, who was female, was originally one of a pair: her original companion, Hedges, disappeared in a flood of the

River Nene The River Nene ( or : see below) is a river in the east of England that rises from three sources in Northamptonshire.OS Explorer Map sheet 223, Northampton & Market Harborough, Brixworth & Pitsford Water. The river is about long, about of w ...

in 1998. Both fish were named due to a hole in Benson's

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

that resembled a cigarette burn, in a reference to Benson & Hedges. At her peak weight, in 2006, she weighed . Benson died on 4 August 2009, aged 25. At the time of her death, she weighed the same as a large dog and was worth £20,000. The owner of the lake where she lived alleged that she was accidentally poisoned by anglers using uncooked tigernuts as bait, though evidence points to the contrary (see section on death below). Another possible cause of death was the complications during egg production.

Fame

Benson lived in the Kingfisher Lake at the

Bluebell Lakes Bluebell Lakes are a series of five fishing lakes in Tansor near Peterborough. The five lakes are Kingfisher, Swan, Bluebell, Sandmartin and Mallard. The lakes have carp up to , tench to , catfish to , pike to , bream to , perch to , roach to and ...

complex, at Tansor just outside

Oundle Oundle () is a market town on the left bank of the River Nene in North Northamptonshire, England, which had a population of 5,735 at the time of the 2011 census. It is north of London and south-west of Peterborough. The town is home to Oundl ...

in Northamptonshire. She was one of approximately 150 carp in Bluebell Lakes, which are managed "to provide the best environment for growth potential of the fish". Steve Broad, editor of ''UK Carp'' magazine, ascribed Benson's fame to "her accessibility": However, this very accessibility made the fish controversial among the sport's elite: "Everyday anglers loved her because there was a chance they could have their photo taken with one of the big fish ... some serious anglers did not like her because she was open to everyone." Benson's record of being caught so often masks her unpredictability. "There was a period when Benson was caught every Monday for six weeks. Then it seemed that she disappeared for the next 12 months"

Death

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' reported in August 2009 that the fish had been "poisoned": It has since been confirmed that the most likely cause of death was not nut poisoning, but rather reproductive complications due to gravidity. Benson's successor as a popular and very large common carp may not live too far away from the fish's former haunt. "The same complex where Benson lived boasts a lot of promising 40 lb fish. There's one—the Z-Fish—that is ounces under 50 lb and still growing."

References

{{reflist 1984 animal births 2009 animal deaths Individual fish Individual animals in the United Kingdom Individual wild animals