The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish. Researchers said Monday that a giant stingray weighed 661 pounds. It was caught in a remote fishing village on the banks of the Mekong River in Cambodia. This makes it the heaviest freshwater fish ever recorded.
The old record was held by a catfish that was 646 pounds and 13 feet long. It was found in northern Thailand in 2005. It also gives people new hope that big freshwater fish, which as a group are very endangered, can start to do well again.
Chea Seila, a member of a joint American-Cambodian research team called the Wonders of the Mekong that is studying freshwater fish, said that a fisherman caught the giant stingray on the evening of June 13. Seila said that the fisherman then got in touch with her team the next morning. After being weighed, the stingray was set free.
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The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish
Before the catch, Seila said in a phone interview, locals had told the researchers that they saw big “black shadows under the water at night.” “They were sure they were ghosts. She said, “I think they were the stingrays.”
The World Wildlife Fund says that almost one-third of all freshwater fish species are in danger of going extinct. Since 1970, the number of freshwater fish weighing 66 pounds or more has dropped by 94%. The Chinese paddlefish was one of the 16 species that were declared extinct in 2020.
“I was worried that there would be more extinctions before records were broken,” said Zeb Hogan. A 48-year-old biologist who has spent the last 20 years studying big freshwater fish. “The most important thing about finding this record-setting fish is that it shows there is still hope for these fish,” he said.
Hogan had just finished writing the first draught of his book, “Chasing Giants. In Search of the World’s Largest Fish.” In his draught, Hogan talks about how Thai people found the largest freshwater fish at the time in 2005. But after hearing from the Wonders of the Mekong team in Cambodia, which he leads with help from the U.S. government. Hogan had to change it last week. The U.S. Agency for International Development gives money to the Wonders of the Mekong project.
Fourth big freshwater fish
The 661-pound stingray is also the fourth big freshwater fish. Which was found in that part of the Mekong River on April 22. When Hogan’s team started asking local fishermen to report any big fish they see. This means that the area, which is near the fishing village of Koh Preah and 140 miles northeast of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. It could be a place where freshwater stingrays breed and should be protected. This might be a stingray hot area, as Hogan put it.
Hogan said that Cambodian fisheries officials are planning a meeting with experts. From Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand to talk about how to better protect the freshwater fish that are still alive in the area.
The Mekong runs through four countries in mainland Southeast Asia. It is about 2,700 miles long, which is longer than the Mississippi River. This means that conservation efforts must be coordinated. Officials in Cambodia could not be reached right away for comment.