Cambodia Catches World’s Biggest Freshwater Fish!

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Cambodia Catches World’s Biggest Freshwater Fish!

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

World’s biggest freshwater fish caught by Cambodian in the Mekong River
The stingray measures almost 4 metres (13 feet) from snout to tail and weighs about 300kg (660lbs)
‘That the fish can still get this big is a hopeful sign’, as the waterway faces many environmental challenges, scientist said

Updated: 12:35am, 21 Jun, 2022
Image
The world’s biggest freshwater fish, a giant stingray that weighs 300kg, was caught in Cambodia. Photo: Reuters
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, captured on June 13, measured almost four meters (13 feet) from snout to tail and weighed slightly under 300 kilos (660lbs), according to a statement Monday by Wonders of the Mekong, a joint Cambodian-US research project.

The previous record for a freshwater fish was a 293-kilo (646-pound) Mekong giant catfish, discovered in Thailand in 2005, the group said.

The stingray was snagged by a local fisherman south of Stung Treng in northeastern Cambodia. The fisherman alerted a nearby team of scientists from the Wonders of the Mekong project, which has publicised its conservation work in communities along the river.

The scientists arrived within hours of getting a post-midnight call with the news, and were amazed at what they saw.

“Yeah, when you see a fish this size, especially in freshwater, it is hard to comprehend, so I think all of our team was stunned,” Wonders of the Mekong leader Zeb Hogan said from the University of Nevada in Reno. The university is partnering 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, as opposed to giant marine species such as bluefin tuna and marlin, or fish that migrate between fresh and saltwater like the huge beluga sturgeon.

The stingray’s catch was not just about setting a record, he said.

“The fact that the fish can still get this big is a hopeful sign for the Mekong River, ” Hogan said, noting that the waterway faces many environmental challenges.
The Mekong River runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is home to several species of giant freshwater fish but environmental pressures are rising.

“Big fish globally are endangered. They’re high-value species. They take a long time to mature. So if they’re fished before they mature, they do not have a chance to reproduce,” Hogan said.

“A lot of these big fish are migratory, so they need large areas to survive. They’re impacted by things like habitat fragmentation from dams, obviously impacted by overfishing.

“So about 70 per cent of giant freshwater fish globally are threatened with extinction, and all of the Mekong species.”

The team that rushed to the site inserted a tagging device near the tail of the mighty fish that will send tracking information for the next year, providing unprecedented data on giant stingray behaviour in Cambodia.
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeas ... -cambodian
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Re: Cambodia Catches World’s Biggest Freshwater Fish!

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

It's official !

Boramy Confirmed as World’s Largest Freshwater Fish
AKP Phnom Penh, June 27, 2022 --
Image
Boramy, a giant freshwater stingray (Urogymnus polylepis) discovered, tagged, and released in the Cambodian Mekong River, has been confirmed by the Guinness World Records as the world’s largest fresh water fish.

According to the Guinness World Records, the female giant freshwater stingray weighed approximately 300 kilogrammes (661 lb) – about the same as a typical grizzly bear – and had a total length of 3.98 metres (13 ft) with tail included, making her longer than a pickup truck!

The phenomenal fish, also known as a whipray, spanned 2.2 metres (7 ft 2 in), meaning that if she were placed on a ping-pong table, her outer "wings" would overhang each side by a foot (30 cm).

The record-breaking ray, which is an endangered species, was named Boramy ("full moon" in the Khmer language), owing to both her rounded disc-like shape and the early-evening time of her release.

For Mr. Zeb Hogan, a fish biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno who leads the Wonders of the Mekong, the stingray find is evidence that the natural world can still yield new and extraordinary discoveries, and that many of the largest aquatic creatures remain woefully understudied.

“In 20 years of researching giant fish in rivers and lakes on six continents, this is the largest freshwater fish that we’ve encountered or that’s been documented anywhere worldwide,” Mr. Hogan, who is also the host of National Geographic’s “Monster Fish” television series, said. “This is an absolutely astonishing discovery, and justifies efforts to better understand the mysteries surrounding this species and the incredible stretch of river where it lives.”

The stingray was caught on June 13, 2022 by a fisher south of the town of Stung Treng, in the middle stretches of the Mekong River as it runs through northern Cambodia. Recognising the importance of his catch, the fisher quickly contacted a team from the USAID-funded Wonders of the Mekong research project to help release the ray back into the river.

In collaboration with the Cambodian Fisheries Administration, the Wonders of the Mekong project established a network of fishers who agreed to report catches of giant and endangered fish, including stingrays. Last month, fishers in the same area reported to the team that they had caught a 400-pound giant female stingray, which the research team then helped release safely into the depths of the river.

(Photo: Wonders of the Mekong)
By C. Nika

More on the Wonders of the Mekong project here: newsworthy/mekong-basin-explorers-wonde ... 49513.html
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