Eddie Rebrands as Broads National Pike

In a surprise move, it has emerged that A Fish Called Eddie - the southern Broads’ statue of a leaping pike – is to be re-branded as a Broads National Pike.

The move follows an “ofishal” consultation process, in addition to a survey of over 1,600 boat owners, residents and visitors. Brand consultants found that, once the opinions of the residents and boat owners were removed from the figures, 80% of the remainder were in favour of the re-branding.

Although Eddie is a member of the Pike family, he is not technically a National Pike. But that doesn’t matter much these days, as Eddie explained – “National Pikes are a globally-recognised brand. By calling myself one, I stand to gain thousands more followers on Twitter – so who cares whether or not it’s true?” Eddie’s brand manager, Dr John Pikeman agreed – “Eddie isn’t actually saying that he is a National Pike – he’s just calling himself one. See?”

Critics have pointed out that if Eddie actually becomes a National Pike, then his right to swim throughout the Broads may be curtailed in the event of an outbreak of rare weeds or protected newts. But Eddie has confirmed that, if he is allowed to call himself a National Pike then he will give up his long-held aspiration of becoming one.

Eddie is no stranger to re-branding, having started life as a 28lb stuffed pike hanging on the wall of the Waveney Inn in 1948, before becoming a galvanised steel statue of a leaping pike as part of a millennium sculpture trail in 2001 and regenerating again as a kind of online virtual fish in 2010.