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."

Comments

Endangered species

[mulhall]

One down, not many left to go:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/05 15_030515_giantcatfish.html

Still who cares about extinction, if you can get a nice photo out of it?

Re:Forget SE Asia for a moment...

[CableModemSniper]

Mmm fried catfish. Deeelicious.

Re:Human Instincts

[patio11]

Its easy for those of us who live in the Western world, where food comes from the supermarket, to say "Hey, thats mildly amusing and useful in no practical way -- why not throw it back?" Would you say the same if it required that *your* kids not have dinner that night?

Re:Human Instincts

[Frogbert]

Well the alternative is to rip out its insides and stuff the thing. Now you tell me which is the bigger waste.

Re:Human Instincts

[varmittang]

Well, if you catch and kill all the fish, then it looks like you are going to have to move the village, or starve to death due to your ignorance.

Re:Ask commercial divers who work in the Mississip

[Viol8]

"It's generally considered common knowledge around these parts"

Oh well it must be true then. After all , who needs empirical evidence when you've got common knowledge. Hell , why did we even bother with the last 200 years of science when we could have just asked local yokels for an explanation for everything!

Heal Thyself

[ianscot]

Some organisms just don't fit with our way of life.

Here's hoping those organisms that don't "fit with our way of life" don't eventually include our own species. Natural selection includes you and me, too, however "slightly different" you think we may be. And mass extinctions don't tend to leave the same species at the top of the pyramid, unless you're counting prokaryotic cells or something.

Environmentalism is enlightened self-interest, not some tree-hugging, static-world conceit about spotted owls and condors being awfully kewl.

Re:Article on this amazing species

[mizukami]

So, just to make sure that I understand your points:

Well look at the source. Of course National Geographic will represent them as "on the way out".

You think that National Geographic just made up the reported fact that populations of this species of catfish have decreased by 80% in the past 13 or so years due to human destruction of their environment, and that this was done to fit some anti-human editorial stance that they've taken? Either that or the fact that they wouldn't have reported this had the species not been endangered? Right?

It's strange that they are in danger, but we are finding the biggest one ever seen.

So your claim is:
We've just found the largest specimen of this species recorded so far (i.e., since 1981, when records were first kept), therefore the population of this species is not in danger.

Right?

Re:Give a man a fish...

[karnal]

You forgot to give a man a freezer. So after the 3rd day, he died of food poisoning....

Re:Article on this amazing species

[TheWickedKingJeremy]

First, from your post it is blatantly obvious that you don't read National Geographic. Your post is instead a knee-jerk reaction based on bad information.

Second, National Geographic's statements regarding the catfish are factually correct. Please read and re-read that statement -- "statements regarding the catfish are factually correct". Please stop dismissing factually correct information as some sort of leftist bias...