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Grizzly-sized Catfish Caught in Thailand
An anonymous reader writes "Fishermen in northern Thailand have netted a fish as big as a grizzly bear, a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish, the heaviest recorded since Thai officials started keeping records in 1981. The behemoth was caught in the Mekong River and may be the largest freshwater fish ever found."
It's already been eaten. The whole fish.
The ones that get away are always bigger, ask any fisherman :)
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but considering my experience of SE asia, i dont' think i might want to eat it....at least not before boiling it in a vat of super-pressurised steam for a few days....
Yeah, you'll need to get rid of all the Agent Orange.
Here is an article on these fish. Sadly they sound like they are on the way out -- humans have disrupted their environment to the point that the populations are isolated and can't move around freely enough.
Here is a photo of a giant stingray from the same area.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
Thought you all would enjoy this. Full resolution AP photo of the catfish. http://ftp2.nationalgeographic.com/pressroom/GIANT %20CATFISH/GiantCatfish.jpg
Because the fish is both setting a record (such things matter to some), and it's also on the critically endangered species list (this can also be construed to mean being something "that matters").
"Thai fisheries officials had hoped to release this adult male Mekong giant catfish after they stripped it of milt for a captive-breeding program. But the whopping fish, which was as big a grizzly bear, didn't survive." http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/ph otogalleries/giantcatfish/photo3.html
it appears that killing the largest and oldest fish has a disproportionate effect on the population as the big ones tend to be the most prolific breeders.
The Mekong giant catfish would be an awful lot better off if this particular great-great-granddaddy/grandmommy had stayed in the water.
http://www.carpecarpio.com/exoticfishpictures.html
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
I was researching this just yesterday so I'm not surprised to see it here. That fish is a whole heckuvva lot larger than the catfish I used to catch and eat as a kid.
/My affiliate link), Chapter 10, even Mark Twain claims to have seen one more than six feet long and weighing 250 pounds in the Mississippi River. (How he managed to weigh it is not recorded ^_-). But cryptozoologists still try to hunt them down, even this summer as reported here. Chester Moore, the organizer of the event, claims that preservation is their goal as well as discovery. This is the biggest North American expedition to research cryptid catfish I've heard of, so it will be interesting to see if they get lucky. They'll need to discover the fish first, though, before talking about preservation. ::)
There are some great photos here at National Geographic's Article on the fish. My favorite photo is the one with an elderly gent cutting a steak larger than his torso. Dang! At that size I wonder if they taste any good?
Of course, Giant Catfish are the stuff of legends, and usually have a kernal of truth. (Links to other whoppers there as well)
Usually tales of the "big one that got away" or, in this case, "Catfish the size of Volkswagon Bugs" are dismissed, but according to Loren Coleman's "Mysterious America" (March 2004 ed.
Preservation of giant catfish is part of the WWF's mission, too, in Thailand & Cambodia. Just this month four giant catfish bred in captivity were released into the Mekong. So Giant Catfish are real in the Amazon, Europe, Asia, etc., but cryptozoological here in the States. Would be cool if they weren't, though.
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"Thai fisheries officials had hoped to release this adult male Mekong giant catfish after they stripped it of milt for a captive-breeding program. But the whopping fish, which was as big a grizzly bear, didn't survive." http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/ph otogalleries/giantcatfish/photo3.html
Reminds me of when the government approved cutting down the oldest living thing on earth.
125lb (57kg) Catfish caught in Mississippi in Iowa: http://www.santeecoopercats.net/records-il.html
Obviously, this doesn't come close to 650lbs like the one from the Mekong. But it does come close to the one you linked.
Personally, I could care less who has the biggest fish. I'm just sick of people looking for every possible opportunity to rant about how dumb and ridiculous they think Americans are.
You do realize catfish are one of the most eaten fish in the world?
that said, this thing is NOT for eating (though they did eat it). Big freshwater fish like that a usually full of worms and are disgusting. We have lots of 50 lb. cats where I live, but no one would think of eating one.
Actually, these giant catfish are quite a delicacy. The price is such that many locals have never had an opportunity to eat it: only a handful are taken each season and the top Bangkok restaurants buy them.
when looking for new or rare fish/birds/rats... etc... thats exactly what they do.
Who is G-d person?
Simple, in certain faiths the word God can not be written without certain rules.
My jewish friends do this, they write it like this so that when the document is tossed in the trash, it's not act against god.
there are some rules ot the termination of documents with the word "God". so find yourself a good Rabbi and ask him.
if you see me, smile and say hello.
Dude, didn't your grandfather fish? Didn't he tell you about "the big one"? How much do you think this guy is going to brag? Are you slowly realizing what the joke was?
After all, I am strangely colored.
Umm... no.
1. Catfish are predisposed to growing quite large if given sufficient space.
2. The Mekong Giant Catfish is a sub-species that generally grows to humongous sizes. People catch record setting or near record setting catfish in the Mekong river every year. There's nothing unnatural about it.
The real problem at the moment is that the popularity of these catfish has some worried that they will be fished to extinction.
Pics of Catfish caught
A 140 pound Catfish caught in Texas
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Here are some better photos:h otogalleries/giantcatfish/index.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/p
>>Cyanide fishing is just as bad, where divers puff a small amount of cyanide into the water to stun fish before collection. This keeps the fish live, and results in no external physical damage. On a broader scale, mass poison release for wider area fishing is less effective, but just as dangerous to sealife. The other problem is that fish collect toxins in their bodies which then get passed through the food chain, to us.
It's worse than that, it will destroy fish livers, resulting in a fish that will starve to death in captivity.
It was so prevalent in the 80s for marine fish for the pet trade, that it resulted in the wide spread depletion of many pacific island areas.
They are lake sturgeon which live entireley in fresh water, but they are about 1/5th the weight as the ocean/river breeds.
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
A juvenile grizzly bear, maybe. They can grow to more than 1,500 pounds, more than twice the weight of this unfortunate catfish.