When carp attack: Watch fish jump at rowers

We've heard of flying fish, but this is ridiculous!

As the Washington University in St. Louis men's rowing teams practiced Friday morning, a school of Asian carp showed their apparent displeasure with the activity by leaping frantically from the waters of Missouri's Creve Coeur Lake.

Junior Benjamin Rosenbaum, a captain of the varsity team, captured the aquatic onslaught on video.

Rosenbaum says practices on the lake aren't normally so eventful, but recent heavy rains and flooding may have brought more of the fish to this particular area. He had seen this activity once before, in 2013, when he was in a boat rather than on the banks.

"They're huge fish. They hurt when then hit you in the rib cage," he says, adding that when this happened in 2013, "I thought someone behind me had punched me."

On Friday, it was the freshman team that suffered the blows. Rosenbaum says the motor from the coach's boat may have aggravated the fish.

"There was a lot of panic and chaos," he says.

Asian carp are considered an invasive species and are known to be aggressive. They have infiltrated waterways in Missouri in recent years, according to news reports.

According to the National Park Service, the carp can grow to 100 pounds, although 50 pounds is more common.