Cambodian rivers catch 180 kg of giant stingrays
Cambodian fisherman Sunlandi is already a 30-year-old fisherman, relying on this craft can not make the family rich and expensive, but the good villain is not worried about eating and drinking, but the price is unless the weather is bad, otherwise you have to work all year round.
On this day, he and a few villagers went to the basin of Shang Thien province in northeastern Cambodia to fish, several people had a clear division of labor, others were responsible for finding areas with turbulent waters to cast nets, and Sun lansi was responsible for fishing. Soon the rod was pulled downwards, and Sunransi felt the force, felt the big fish hooked, and he skillfully operated the rod, which was dragged up from the dark depths of the Mekong River. Several people looked at it in disbelief, this fish was ridiculously large, at least it looked larger than humans to the naked eye.
Instead of secretly selling the fish, they informed members of the Mekong Wonders Project, a conservation organization run by the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) in cooperation with local fishing authorities. Soon the researchers arrived, and they determined that it was a giant freshwater stingray, one of the largest freshwater fish in the world.
After removing the fishing line and measuring its dimensions before it was safely released, they hurried to release the giant freshwater stingray back into the river. After measurement, it was determined that the fish weighed 180 kg and was 1.9 m wide, taking into account its whip-like tail 4 m long and a 15 cm long poisonous serrated barb at the end of the tail.
Although this fish is quite large, scientists know very little about them.
Giant freshwater stingray
Giant freshwater stingrays were not first observed until 2004, but were not identified as new species until 2006 by researchers at the WWF-Thailand and the Smithsonian Institution in the United States. Scientists believe that this broad, flattened, long, whip-like giant fish has hardly changed for at least millions of years.
They inhabit estuaries and large deep rivers, buried in sandy or silted river bottoms, waiting for unsuspecting fish, clams and crabs, sensing the movements of their prey in advance through sensors that can detect the animal's electric field, and launching violent attacks when the prey is about to pass above it.
It is conservatively estimated that this fish can grow at least 5 meters long, which undoubtedly gives them the strength to compete for the largest freshwater fish, and even the newly born juvenile fish is already 30 cm wide.
Giant freshwater stingrays never actively attack humans, but they are simply too big to pose a huge threat to those who mistakenly catch them. They have a deadly barb at the bottom of their tail, which can be up to 38 centimeters long, and can easily penetrate human skin and even bones, like arrows, and also inject poison.
Despite their outrageous size, surprisingly, they remain elusively hidden in mystery, as evidenced by scientists until 2004, and because their ecoregions have been over-logged by humans and their river habitats have been degraded due to pollution, their numbers, although unclear, are pessimistically listed as endangered by scientists. No wonder Sunland, a 30-year-old fisherman, has never seen them.
postscript
Mekong basins have been plagued by severe pollution, overfishing and dam construction, all of which have had a fatal impact on the once diverse and rich ecology of the Mekong. Once hailed as "the most productive river in the world," the river, which could have provided abundant food for large animals, is also fading.