The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, a giant stingray, has been caught in the Mekong River in Cambodia, according to scientists from the Southeast Asian nation and the United States.
The stingray, caught on June 13, measured almost four meters from snout to tail and weighed just under 300 kilograms, according to a statement from Wonders of the Mekong, a joint Cambodian-US research project. .
The previous record for a freshwater fish was a 293-pound giant catfish from the Mekong, discovered in Thailand in 2005, the group said.
A man touches a giant strip of fresh water before being released back into the Mekong River in Stung Treng Province in northeastern Cambodia. (AP) Village residents watch a giant stream of fresh water return to the Mekong River in Cambodia. (AP) The stingray was caught by a local fisherman south of Stung Treng in northeastern Cambodia. The fisherman alerted a close-knit team of scientists to the Wonders of the Mekong project, which has made its conservation work known to river communities.
The scientists arrived a few hours after receiving a call after midnight with the news and were surprised by what they saw.
“Yes, when you see a fish of this size, especially in freshwater, it’s hard to understand, so I think our whole team was amazed,” said Wonders of the Mekong leader Zeb Hogan in an online interview from the University of Nevada at Reno. The university has partnered with the Cambodian Fisheries Administration and USAID, the US government’s international development agency.
Freshwater fish are defined as those that spend their entire lives in freshwater, unlike giant marine species such as bluefin tuna and marlin, or fish that migrate between freshwater and saltwater. like the huge beluga sturgeon.
A team of Cambodian and American scientists and researchers, along with Fisheries Administration officials, measure the length of a giant freshwater streak from snout to tail before being released back into the Mekong River. in the northeastern province of Stung Treng, Cambodia. (AP)
Catching the sting was not just about setting a new record, he said.
“The fact that the fish can still be so big is a hopeful sign for the Mekong River,” Hogan said, noting that the waterway faces many environmental challenges.
The Mekong River flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It is home to several species of giant freshwater fish, but environmental pressures are rising. In particular, scientists fear that a major dam construction program in recent years could be seriously disrupting spawning grounds.
“Large fish worldwide are in danger of extinction. They are valuable species. They take a long time to mature. So if they are caught before they mature, they have no chance of reproducing,” Hogan said. “Many of these large fish are migratory, so they need large areas to survive. They are affected by things like the fragmentation of prey habitat, which is obviously affected by overfishing. That’s about 70 percent. of freshwater giant fish around the world are threatened with extinction, and all species in the Mekong. “
A local fisherman caught the 300-pound stingray. (AP)
The team that rushed to the site inserted a tagging device near the tail of the powerful fish that will send tracking information over the next year, providing unprecedented data on the behavior of giant rays in Cambodia.
“The giant stingray is a very misunderstood fish. Its name, even its scientific name, has changed several times in the last 20 years,” Hogan said. “It’s in Southeast Asia, but we have almost no information about it. We don’t know about its life history. We don’t know about its ecology, about its migratory patterns.”
Researchers say it is the fourth giant stingray to be reported in the same area in the past two months, all female. They believe this may be a hot spot for the species.
The giant stingray set the record for the world’s largest freshwater fish and won its wrangler a $ 600 reward. (AP)
Neighbors christened the streak with the nickname “Boramy,” or “full moon,” because of its round shape and because the moon was on the horizon when it was released on June 14th. the lucky fisherman was compensated at the market rate, that is, he received a payment of about $ 600.