The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish was reported to have been caught in Cambodia’s Mekong River, and people marveled at this gigantic creature.
The Associated Press (AP) reported on Monday:
The stingray, caught on June 13, measured nearly four meters (13 feet) from nose to tail and weighed less than 300 kilograms (660 pounds), according to a statement released Monday by the Cambodia-US joint research project Wonders of the Mekong.
The previous record for a freshwater fish was the 293 kg (646 lb) Mekong giant catfish, discovered in Thailand in 2005.
The creature was allegedly caught by a fisherman south of Stung Treng, who reported the latter to scientists from the Mekong Miracles group. The scientists who rushed to the scene could not believe their eyes.
A picture appeared When the man reached out to touch it, it looked like a giant fish lying on a green tarp in the water:
Record catch: The giant stingray, the world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, was caught in the Mekong River in Cambodia, according to scientists from Southeast Asian countries and the United States. https://t.co/PifSrRaAg1 pic.twitter.com/Zy5WA6nJpd
– FOX 8 New Orleans (@FOX8NOLA) 20 June 2022
In a social media post on Monday, Wonders of the Mekong shared additional photos of the hunt, saying it marked the beginning of “the first attempt at acoustic tagging in the freshwater stingray”:
Last month, members of the Wonders of the Mekong team, along with FISHBIO and others, established a network of acoustic receptors across the Cambodian Mekong Basin. This new network will allow scientists to observe this rare fish species and learn about their movements and behavior!
The entire team was shocked, group leader Zeb Hogan from the University of Nevada told AP in an interview.
However, the search is not just a record, but its alleged size is a positive signal for the Mekong River, according to Hogan.
The waterway is home to several giant freshwater fish species, so scientists are concerned about the imminent construction of the dam, which could affect their spawning grounds.
Video footage shows people ostensibly pulling the big fish onto a tarp, while others measured it before releasing it:
Hogan continues: “Many of these big fish are migratory, so they need large areas to live. They are affected by things like habitat fragmentation due to dams, obviously due to overfishing.”
“Thus, about 70% of the world’s giant freshwater fish and all species of the Mekong are endangered,” he added.
According to Conservation.org, the Mekong River has become the lifeblood of the region’s 300 million people.
Source: Breitbart
