Status: 06/21/2022 12:06 p.m
A fisherman has caught the largest freshwater fish ever documented in Cambodia. Equipped with a direction-finding transmitter, the giant ray is now supposed to deliver important data in the service of science.
Four meters long and almost 300 kilograms in weight: this giant stingray is the largest freshwater fish ever recorded in the world. A fisherman had caught the animal in northeast Cambodia in the province of Stung Treng from the Mekong.
Scientists from the US-Cambodian research project “Wonders of the Mekong” speak of an “absolutely amazing discovery”. In 20 years of research on six continents, it is “the largest freshwater fish ever documented in the world,” said fish biologist and project leader Zeb Hogan.
Gigantic fish fitted with a tracking device
Unlike many previous record-breaking animals, the female ray was left alive. Equipped with a tracking device for research purposes, the animal, which was christened “Boramy” – Khmer for full moon – because of its round shape, was allowed back into the water. For a year, the tracking device will send the researchers data about the giant fish that will document its behavior.
The discovery of the fish is particularly valuable for research. According to the head of research, it is a little-researched species whose name has changed several times in the past 20 years.
“Hopeful Sign”
The catch of the freshwater stingray is not just about setting a new record, Hogan emphasizes. That a fish can still grow this large is a hopeful sign for the Mekong, which faces many ecological challenges. According to the head of research, large fish are in danger worldwide. Since it takes a long time until they are sexually mature, they often have no chance to reproduce. Usually they would be caught too early.
Many species are migratory fish and need large areas to survive. They are affected, for example, by the fragmentation of their habitats by dams and obviously by overfishing. About 70 percent of the particularly large freshwater fish worldwide are threatened with extinction.
Mekong: habitat for thousands of fish species
More than a thousand different species of fish live in the Mekong, the longest river in Southeast Asia at 4,350 kilometers. The giant stingray isn’t the only giant that makes its home in the muddy waters – the giant catfish and giant barbel also found there can grow up to three meters long and weigh up to 270 kilograms. The largest freshwater fish in the world to date was a 293-kilogram Mekong giant catfish that was caught in Thailand in 2005.
Scientists warn, however, that plastic waste threatens wildlife even in the deepest reaches of the Mekong – as do so-called ghost nets lost or discarded by fishermen, in which the animals become entangled.