Tuesday, November 20, 2007

8-Foot Giant Catfish Caught in Cambodia

(All photos: National Geographic News)



By Stefan Lovgren
National Geographic News


November 19, 2007—Captured just before midnight on November 13 by fishers in Cambodia, this Mekong giant catfish is 8 feet long (2.4 meters long) ands weighs 450 pounds (204 kilograms).

"This is the only giant catfish that has been caught this year so far, making it the worst year on record for catch of giant fish species," said Zeb Hogan (far right), a fisheries biologist at the University of Reno in Nevada.

After collecting data on the fish, Hogan released it unharmed.

Giant catfish were once plentiful throughout Southeast Asia's Mekong River watershed, including the Tonle Sap River—home of the fish in these exclusive pictures taken near Phnom Penh.

But in the last century the Mekong giant catfish population has declined by 95 to 99 percent, scientists say. Only a few hundred adult giant catfish may remain.

Since 2000 five to ten fish have been caught by accident each year throughout the Mekong area.

Earlier this year Hogan launched the three-year Megafishes Project to document the world's giant freshwater fish (See photos of other giant fish.)

The project is funded in part by the National Geographic Conservation Trust and Expeditions Council.

(National Geographic News is owned by the National Geographic Society.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

All cat fish that I know is a scavenger fish. They eat dead and rotten fish, creature, plant, and what have you from the bottom of the lake. That is why they are one of a successfully specie becase there are plenty thing to eat on the bottom of the water. However, they also have some competitors.

Thus, if the giant cat fish are facing extinction, it must be from competition for food, and to make it worse, they are one of the slowest fish around. To compare the speed of a giant cat fish to a shark is like comparing a turtle to a rabbit, hehehe. Hence, this can make them a good meal for crocodile. Aside from that the only other thing I can think of is that they are having problem breeding somehow.

Anonymous said...

Oh! please release it back to the wild. it had escaped polpot, yuon etc..this thing is at least 30 or 40 years old to grow this big.

Anonymous said...

the main comprttitior for this giant fish is ah youn. ah youn catch/eat everything that move.

Traditionally, khmer don't eat that giant catfish.

Anonymous said...

True but Ah Khmer-Yuon does eat the giant cat fish. They are totally extincted in South Vietnam.

Anonymous said...

they learn from ah Youn.

it is good if the number of giant catfish increases and the number of ah youn decreases in Cambodia.