Astonished fishers reel in gigantic 400-pound stingray in Cambodian river
Fishers in Cambodia just lately been given a substantial surprise when they reeled in a gigantic 400-pound stingray. The significant ray was dragged up from the murky depths of the Mekong River immediately after it swallowed a fish that had already been snagged on the fishers’ line.
The monstrous ray, which has been identified as a giant freshwater stingray (Urogymnus polylepis), was accidentally caught by locals on May 5 in the Stung Treng province in northeastern Cambodia. The fishers promptly alerted staff associates from the Wonders of the Mekong job — a conservation group operate by the College of Nevada, Reno (UNR), in collaboration with area fishing authorities — who aided eliminate the fishing line and measure the ray right before securely releasing it again into the river.
The massive specimen weighed a significant 397 pounds (180 kilograms) and calculated 6 feet (1.9 meters) broad and 13 ft (4 m) in length together with its whip-like tail, which terminated in a 6 inch (15 centimeter) venomous, serrated barb, UNR associates claimed in a statement.
Big freshwater stingrays are the world’s premier stingray species and “are contenders for the title of world’s most significant freshwater fish,” Zeb Hogan, a UNR fish biologist and director of the Miracles of the Mekong project, explained to Live Science.
Related: 7-foot ‘monster’ sturgeon discovered in Detroit River could be above 100 years old
Minimal is acknowledged about these remarkably huge fish for the reason that “catches are almost never ever described,” Hogan reported, “which also will make it tough to determine genuine abundance or inhabitants tendencies.”
Nonetheless, past reviews recommend that folks can expand even even bigger than this behemoth. “The measurement of this stingray was surprising,” Hogan said. “But what is far more stunning is that it truly is dwarfed by accounts of [individuals] 2 times the sizing noted by fishermen in the same area.”
The present record-holder for the biggest fish in the Mekong River — which flows via China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam — is a 646-pound (293 kg) Mekong large catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) that was caught in Thailand in 2005, Hogan stated. Giant freshwater stingrays can probable mature larger than this, he additional. In 2009, a huge freshwater stingray caught in Thailand was estimated to weigh involving 550 and 770 pounds (249 and 349 kg) but was hardly ever officially weighed.
The biggest freshwater fish in the environment are beluga sturgeon (Huso huso) these monumental fish, which are identified in Russia, can get to a highest duration of additional than 26 toes (8 m) and weigh up to 2.2 tons (2 metric tons).
The Mekong River is also property to a amount of other huge aquatic species, like Irrawaddy dolphins, huge softshell turtles, Mekong large catfish, large barbs (a kind of carp), big goonch catfish and huge sheatfish (a different style of catfish), in accordance to the statement. “This distant and somewhat pristine extend of the Cambodian Mekong River appears to be the past area on Earth exactly where all of these iconic large freshwater species are living alongside a person a different,” Hogan said.
These giant species are ready to expand to serious dimensions due to the fact the Mekong River has a large variety of diverse habitat styles which includes deep pools, braided channels, sand bars and islands that “give refuge and space for the species to improve,” Hogan said. Traditionally, the Mekong River is 1 of the “most effective rivers in the earth” and would have delivered an abundance of foods for more substantial animals, he added.
Nonetheless, the wellness of the Mekong River has significantly declined in latest a long time because of to water air pollution, overfishing and habitat fragmentation thanks to river developments, these types of as dams, Hogan reported. As a end result, huge freshwater rays are now listed as endangered, in accordance to the International Union for Conservation of Mother nature (IUCN) Purple Record of endangered species.
At first published on Reside Science.
