Metro

Airline over fish barrel

Talk about a fine kettle of fish.

The American Museum of Natural History is suing American Airlines for destroying two barrels of African fish slated for study at the famed hall of artifacts.

The suit seeks at least $25,000 in damages for the missing fish, covering the cost of buying and shipping them as well as “the loss of research which would have resulted from the specimens” as part of the museum’s “Congo Project.”

The preserved fish were lost when the plane carrying them from Africa made a stopover in Brussels last Oct. 21, according to papers filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court.

A few days later, the museum was told allegedly “that the barrels had to be destroyed because they were purportedly leaking and ‘full of maggots.’ ”

The suit says that “explanation is not credible because the fish specimens had been preserved in a solution of formalin and then double-bagged, creating an environment in which no maggot or pest could survive.”