The miser, who was arrested on June 13, weighed nearly four meters from the muzzle to the tail and weighed just under 300 kilograms, according to a statement Monday from the Wonders of the Mekong, a Cambodian-US joint research project. The previous record for a freshwater fish was a 293-pound giant Mekong catfish, discovered in Thailand in 2005, the team said. The bobbin was grabbed by a local fisherman south of Stung Treng, in northeastern Cambodia. The fisherman alerted a nearby team of scientists from the Wonders of the Mekong project, which has made public its conservation project in communities along the river.
“It’s hard to understand”
The scientists arrived within hours after receiving a midnight call with the news and were surprised by what they saw. “Yes, when you see a fish of this size, especially in freshwater, it’s hard to understand, so I think our whole team was surprised,” Wonders of the Mekong leader Zeb Hogan said in an online interview with the University. of Nevada. Reno. The university works with the Cambodian Fisheries Administration and USAID, the US government’s international development agency. Freshwater fish are defined as those that spend their entire lives in freshwater, as opposed to giant marine species such as bluefin tuna and marlin, or fish that migrate between freshwater and saltwater, such as the giant beluga sturgeon. Tsabouka’s arrest was not just about setting a new record, Hogan said. “The fact that the fish can still grow so big is a promising sign for the Mekong River,” he said, noting that the waterway faces many environmental challenges. The Mekong River crosses China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is home to many species of freshwater giant fish, but environmental pressures are mounting. In particular, scientists fear that a large dam project in recent years could seriously disrupt breeding grounds.
Labeled scientists
“Large fish are threatened with extinction worldwide. They are high value species. They take a long time to mature. Therefore, if caught before they mature, they do not have a chance to reproduce,” Hogan said. “Many of these large fish are migratory, so they need large areas to survive. They are affected by things like the fragmentation of habitats by dams, obviously affected by overfishing. So about 70 percent of the freshwater giant fish worldwide are threatened with extinction. and all Mekong species. “ The team that rushed to the site placed a marking device near the tail of the mighty fish that will send tracking information for next year, providing unprecedented data on the behavior of the giant ticks in Cambodia. “The giant tick is a very misunderstood fish. Its name, even its scientific name, has changed several times in the last 20 years,” Hogan said. “It is found all over Southeast Asia, but we have almost no information about it. We do not know about its life history. We do not know about its ecology, its immigration patterns.” Villagers watch as a team of Cambodian and American scientists and researchers, along with Fisheries Service officials, prepare to release the fish on June 14. (Sinsamout Ounboundisane / FISHBIO / The Associated Press) Researchers say it is the fourth giant tick reported in the same area in the past two months, all female. They believe this may be a hot spot for the species. The locals nicknamed it “Boramy” or “full moon” because of its round shape and because the moon was on the horizon when it was released on June 14. In addition to the record-breaking price, The Lucky Fisherman was compensated with the purchase rate, which means he received a payment of about $ 600.
