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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."
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
"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.
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
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.