They’d gone to the Mekong to tease fish, but didn’t expect to land a four-meter, 180-pound catch: Fishermen in Cambodia caught a giant stingray, one of the world’s largest freshwater fish.
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Threatened by overfishing, pollution and habitat loss, the freshwater ray is a protected species.
The fish was released after being measured and weighed by scientists from the Wonders of the Mekong project who were on site.
The ray was accidentally caught in Stung Treng province (north) last week when it swallowed a smaller fish that had taken the fishermen’s hook.
The Mekong, one of the longest rivers in Asia (4350 km long), is home to the most important aquatic biodiversity in the world after the Amazon with more than 1000 species of fish.
Huge specimens such as the giant catfish or the giant barbel, which can grow three meters long and weigh up to 300 kilos, populate its waters.
The river, which is up to 80 meters deep in places, could harbor even larger species, according to scientists.
It’s full of “unseen and hidden ecosystems,” notes Zeb Hogan, an American biologist from the University of Nevada and director of the US-funded Wonders of Mekong project, in a press release.
Vital to millions of people in Southeast Asia, the Mekong and its wildlife are threatened by dozens of dams Beijing has built on the river and its tributaries in China, Laos and Cambodia.
Pollution is another source of concern.
Even in the deepest reaches of the river, plastic debris and “ghost nets” lost or abandoned by fishermen have been discovered in which fish can become entangled.