beyond imagination!The world's largest freshwater fish

Wen ｜ Wenlele

Researchers captured a giant strokes weighing 300 kg in Cambodia's Mekong River. Image source: sinsamout ounboundisane/fishbio

Recently, a team of scientists who inspected the Mekong fish in Cambodia discovered the largest freshwater fish ever -a giant stroke weighing 300 kg, from the nose to the tail of nearly 4 meters.

"There is still such a large fish in the river like Mekong, such as excessive fishing and development, which is incredible." Said Zeb Hogan, a fish biologist at the University of Nevada University in the United States.

According to "Science", the work of this scientist team is part of an international cooperation project called "Mekong Miracle". Thanks to the cooperative relationship and luck with the local fishery community, they have marked and released this recorded stepping.

The researchers plan to install sound wave labels on 200 fish and use the receiver array to track their activities in the 300 -kilometer river channel near Gongding River near Gongding City, Cambodia. These data may help protect the work.

In early May, local fishermen told researchers that they accidentally captured a weighing 180 kg of female yellow mink. The research team deployed a sound wave receiver in the area to help the fish return to the river safely.

Later, fishermen from the same area reported that on the night of June 13, they captured a "much larger" stingy. Hogan, the person in charge of the "Mekong Miracle" project, said that scientists arrived at the scene on June 14.

After measuring this fish, the research team put it back to the wild. This steak exceeds the largest freshwater fish recorded before -a 293 kg of endangered giant catfish captured in the Mekong River in Thailand in 2005.

The "Mekong Miracle" project is not just looking for big fish. The project focuses on a remote area of ​​the river, where nearly 1,000 kinds of aquatic species live there, which is considered to be an extremely important "refuge" in the southern Asian dry season. In addition to biological diversity, the Mekong River also supports regional fisheries and is an important source of food in most parts of Southeast Asia.

This is the first fish in Cambodia's deployment of sound wave array tracking. Hogan said that this recorded sting also became the first fish marked with the 200 fish marked by the "Mekong Miracle Miracle" related team plan, which made this effort. "".

Solomon David, an American aquatic ecologist who has not participated in the "Mekong Miracle" project, said that such a rare specimen was found and "indicates that there is still time to protect these freshwater giant fish." "Freshwater is one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world." He added, "We need to take action quickly to protect these habitats and its unique and charming biodiversity."

"China Science News" (2022-06-22 The first edition of the original title is "The largest freshwater fish that has so far appeared in the Mekong River")

Edit | Zhao Lu

Capture | Zhihai

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