World’s largest freshwater fish caught in Cambodia

 

A fisher in Cambodia has caught what scientists say is the world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, a giant stingray.

Captured on June 13, the stingray measured almost four metres (13 feet) from snout to tail and weighed slightly less than 300kg (660lbs), according to a statement on Monday by Wonders of the Mekong, a joint Cambodian-US research project.

The previous record for a freshwater fish was a 293-kg (646-lb) Mekong giant catfish, discovered in Thailand in 2005, the group said.

Christened “Boramy”- meaning the full moon in the Khmer language – because of her bulbous shape, the stingray was caught south of Stung Treng on the Mekong River in northeastern Cambodia. It took about a dozen men to haul the fish ashore.

They alerted a nearby team of scientists from the Wonders of the Mekong project, which has publicised its conservation work in communities along the river.

The scientists arrived within hours of getting a post-midnight call with the news, and were amazed at what they saw.

“When you see a fish this size, especially in freshwater, it is hard to comprehend, so I think all of our team was stunned,” Wonders of the Mekong leader Zeb Hogan said in an online interview from the University of Nevada in Reno.

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