The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, the giant stingray, has been caught in the Mekong River in Cambodia, scientists say.
The stingray, caught on June 13, is nearly four meters from snout to tail and weighed just under 300kg, according to a statement Monday from Wonders of the Mekong, a joint research project by Cambodia and the United States.
The previous record for freshwater fish was a 293kg giant catfish from the Mekong, discovered in Thailand in 2005, the group said.
The stingray was caught by a local fisherman south of Stung Treng in northeastern Cambodia. The fisherman warned a team of scientists from the Wonders of the Mekong project, which published its conservation work in communities along the river.
The scientists arrived within hours of a midnight call with the news and were amazed by what they saw. “Yes, when you see fish of this size, especially in fresh water, it’s hard to understand, so I think our whole team was stunned,” said Mekong Wonderland leader Zeb Hogan.
“The fact that the fish can still get so big is an encouraging sign for the Mekong River,” he said, noting that the waterway faces many environmental challenges.
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The Mekong passes through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and is home to several species of giant freshwater fish, but the pressure on the environment is increasing. Scientists fear that a major dam program in recent years could seriously disrupt spawning grounds.
A marker has been placed near the fish’s tail, which will send tracking information for next year, providing unprecedented data on the behavior of a giant stingray in Cambodia.
“The giant stingray is a very poorly understood fish. “His name, even his scientific name, has changed several times in the last 20 years,” Hogan said. “It’s located all over Southeast Asia, but we have almost no information about it. We do not know the story of his life. We don’t know about its ecology, about its migration models. “
Researchers say this is the fourth giant stingray reported in the same area in the last two months, all female. They believe that this may be a hot spot for breeding the species.
Locals called the stingray “Borami” – meaning “full moon” – because of its round shape and because the moon was on the horizon when it was released on June 14. In addition to the honor of catching the record holder, the lucky fisherman was compensated at the market rate, which means he received a payment of about $ 600.
“Big fish worldwide are under threat. They are high value species. It takes a long time to mature. So if they are caught before they mature, they have no chance of reproducing, “Hogan said.
“Many of these big fish are migrating, so they need large areas to survive. They are influenced by things like fragmenting habitats from dams [and are] they are obviously affected by overfishing. So about 70% of the world’s giant freshwater fish are endangered, as are all Mekong species.
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