Phone recovered from grouper’s stomach after 8 months

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/05/19/2003857611

Publish Date: 2026-05-19 04:07:00

By Fion Khan / Staff writer

A journalist today said he unexpectedly recovered his iPhone after it was swallowed by a giant grouper at a fish farm in Kaohsiung in September last year.

Journalist Chen Chih-tung (陳志東) said he was visiting a fish farm in Yongan District (永安) when he used his iPhone 16 Pro Max to photograph a giant grouper.

The fish suddenly leaped from the water, knocked the phone from his hands and swallowed it whole, he said in a Facebook post.

Photo courtesy of Chen Chih-tung

There were seven massive groupers in the pond at the time, making it impossible to know which one had eaten the device, he said.

People joked that he should call the grouper’s phone number or deliver a charger to the fish, while others quipped that even the grouper was using a newer phone model than they were, he said.

Chen said that the farm owner texted him two weeks ago, saying that the fish had died and they found a cell phone inside its stomach.

Photo courtesy of Chen Chih-tung

The owner said the fish was 23 years old, longer than 1m and weighed nearly 100kg.

Chen said he felt somewhat guilty, wondering whether the swallowed phone might have contributed to the fish’s death, but the owner reassured him that life and death are part of life at the fish farm.

Chen said he has arranged to visit the farm’s newly opened bistro in Kaohsiung on Friday, where they plan to hold a jokingly named “summoning ritual” for the iPhone 16 to see whether it can still power on after spending eight months inside the fish’s…

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