PHNOM PENH: A fisherman at the Mekong river in Cambodia has hooked the most important freshwater fish ever recorded, scientists stated – a 300-kilogram stingray. The enormous freshwater stingray, which measured 4 meters from snout to tail, was once stuck closing week and launched again into the wild after being fitted with a tag to trace its habits.
The monstrous bottom-dweller beat the former file for greatest recorded freshwater fish, held through a 293-kilo Mekong large catfish stuck in Thailand in 2005, the US-funded Wonders of the Mekong analysis challenge stated. The stingray, stuck in Stung Treng province in northern Cambodia, was once greater than two times the burden of a mean lowland gorilla, the professionals stated.
“In two decades of researching large fish in rivers and lakes on six continents, that is the biggest freshwater fish that we’ve encountered or that’s been documented any place international,” Zeb Hogan, a fish biologist main the Wonders of the Mekong challenge, stated in a commentary launched Tuesday. “That is a completely astonishing discovery, and justifies efforts to higher perceive the mysteries surrounding this species and the fantastic stretch of river the place it lives.”
The researchers fitted an acoustic tag to the stingray sooner than returning it to the river, to take a look at to be told extra in regards to the secretive creature’s elusive habits. Ultimate month, an endangered large freshwater stingray 4 meters lengthy and weighing 180 pounds was once additionally hooked through a fisherman in the similar province. Greater than 1,000 fish species name the Mekong house and the stingray isn’t the one large lurking within the muddy waters – the enormous catfish and large barb additionally achieve as much as 3 meters lengthy and 270 pounds in weight.
Scientists have warned that plastic waste threatens flora and fauna even within the inner most stretches of the Mekong, in conjunction with “ghost nets” – deserted through fishers however nonetheless ready to snare fish. The well-known waterway begins in China and twists south thru portions of Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, feeding 60 million other folks thru its basin and tributaries. However environmentalists have lengthy voiced issues about dam development alongside the Mekong River that may break fish shares. – AFP