While this species of giant stingray has an extremely dangerous venomous barb that can reach 30cm in length, they are not usually a threat to humans. Hogan said he had previously established that freshwater fish as the largest ever caught. And at 300kg, it was 7kg heavier than a Mekong giant catfish caught in Thailand in 2005. The ray, hauled out of the murky waters of the Mekong River in Cambodia, measured four metres in length before it was returned to the river. On June 13, his team found it - a giant freshwater stingray, or Urogymnus polylepis. (Chhut Chheana via The New York Times)įor 17 years, Zeb Hogan, a biologist, has been searching for the world’s largest freshwater fish. In the U.S.In an undated image provided by Chhut Chheana, a Urogymnus polylepis, or giant stingray, was fished out of the Mekong River to be weighed and measured in Cambodia. "Most of them are not doing very well, primarily because they need big air, they need big, healthy rivers, they need lots of food, they need protection from being over fished." "Almost all of the big fish in Asia are endangered," he said. TEXAS TROPHY: MAN HOOKS 300-POUND ALLIGATOR GAR OUTSIDE HOUSTON Hogan said that there are over 30 species of freshwater fish over six feet long and 200 pounds in the world and 70% of those are endangered. So there's about a thousand different kinds of fish." Most giant freshwater fish are endangered "Over 2 million tons of fish are harvested from the Mekong every year, and it's also super diverse. "The Mekong River is the most productive river in the world," said Hogan about the group's interest in the river. (Sion Ang/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images) And it's also a hopeful sign."ĭams like this one in northern Cambodia threaten the future of giant freshwater fish. "So the fact that they're still the world's largest fish still occurs in the Mekong River is pretty remarkable. The fact that these fish can still grow so big in a river like the Mekong, where there's a lot of people in the Mekong River, fishing pressure is high, habitat has been degraded recently from dams and pollution," Hogan explained why this discovery was so important. "I think this catch came as a surprise to most people. MOTHER NATURE HELPS MAN SNAG 140-POUND RECORD-MONSTER FISH IN MISSOURI LAKE A ‘hopeful sign’ for the future of big fish You may also recognize him from his National Geographic show " Monster Fish." He launched a worldwide project in 2005 to find, study and protect the largest freshwater fish in the world. Hogan specializes in studying large freshwater fish. "And so we told the fishermen ‘hey, if you catch one of these fish, rather than chopping it up and selling it in the local market, contact us and we'll compensate you at the market rate', which is a little over a dollar-a-pound." And so we knew they're being caught, but they weren't being reported," explained Hogan. "These are fish that we have seen chopped up in local markets. (Barbara Alper/Getty Images / Getty Images) Researchers don't know much about the freshwater stingray as they are bottom-dwellers that cover themselves in dirt or sand like this salt-water cousin.
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