A fisherman on the Mekong river in Cambodia has hooked the biggest freshwater fish ever recorded, scientists said — a 300-kilogram stingray. The giant freshwater stingray, which measured four metres from snout to tail, was caught last week and released back into the wild after being fitted with a tag to track its behaviour. The monstrous bottom-dweller beat the previous record for biggest recorded freshwater fish, held by a 293-kilo Mekong giant catfish caught in Thailand in 2005, the US-funded Wonders of the Mekong research project said. The stingray, caught in Stung Treng province in northern Cambodia, was more than twice the weight of an average lowland gorilla, the experts said. “In 20 years of researching giant fish in rivers and lakes on six continents, this is the largest freshwater fish that we’ve encountered or that’s been documented anywhere worldwide”, Zeb Hogan, a fish biologist leading the Wonders of the Mekong project, said. — AFP
