A large stingray was caught within the Mekong river in Cambodia final week, and it was the world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, in response to scientists from the Southeast Asian nation and the USA. The stingray captured on June 13 measured nearly 13 ft from snout to tail and weighed a bit below 300 kilograms, information company Related Press reported, quoting an announcement issued by Wonders of the Mekong, a joint US-Cambodia analysis mission.
Based on the group, the earlier report for a freshwater fish was a 293-kg Mekong large catfish, netted in Thailand in 2005.
After the stingray landed in his internet south of Stung Treng in northeastern Cambodia, a neighborhood fisherman made a post-midnight name to scientists from the Wonders of the Mekong mission who’re endeavor conservation work and had publicised about it in communities dwelling alongside the river.
A crew arrived inside hours, solely to be stunned to see the discover, the AP report mentioned.
“Yeah, while you see a fish this measurement, particularly in freshwater, it’s exhausting to grasp, so I feel all of our crew was surprised,” Wonders of the Mekong chief Zeb Hogan was quated as saying in an internet interview from the College of Nevada in Reno, which is partnering with the Cambodian Fisheries Administration and USAID, the US authorities’s worldwide improvement company, within the mission.
He mentioned the catch was not nearly a brand new report, however “the truth that the fish can nonetheless get this massive is a hopeful signal for the Mekong River”.
The river operating by the Asian nations of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, is residence to a number of species of large freshwater fish. Hogan, nonetheless, famous that Mekong faces many environmental challenges. A serious dam mission, which scientists imagine could also be significantly disrupting spawning grounds, is of specific concern, in response to the AP report.
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Report Catch Launched Again Into The River, To Be Tracked For A Yr
The enormous feminine stingray caught by the native fisherman was launched again into the river after the scientists’ crew fitted a tagging gadget close to its tail. The report mentioned this gadget will monitor the fish’s actions and ship data to the scientists for the following 12 months, offering knowledge on large stingray behaviour in Cambodia.
“The enormous stingray is a really poorly understood fish. Its identify, even its scientific identify, has modified a number of occasions within the final 20 years,” Hogan was quoted as saying. “It’s discovered all through Southeast Asia, however we’ve nearly no details about it. We don’t find out about its life historical past. We don’t find out about its ecology, about its migration patterns.”
Based on researchers, it’s the fourth large stingray to have been caught in the identical space within the final two months, and all of them have been females. They imagine the world to be a spawning hotspot for the fish.
In the meantime, the AP report mentioned, native residents nicknamed the stingray “Boramy” or “full moon” due to its spherical form, and in addition as a result of the moon was on the horizon when the fish was launched on June 14. To compensate the record-breaker fisherman who caught the large stingray, he was paid round $600, the market fee for his catch, the report mentioned.
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