Cambodian fishermen hook giant endangered stingray

Published May 12, 2022
The US-funded Wonders of the Mekong project shows a female giant freshwater stingray in Cambodia’s Stung Treng province.—AFP
The US-funded Wonders of the Mekong project shows a female giant freshwater stingray in Cambodia’s Stung Treng province.—AFP

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian fishermen on the Mekong River got a shock when they inadvertently hooked an endangered giant freshwater stingray four metres long and weighing 180 kilos, scientists said on Wednesday.

The female leviathan, one of Southeast Asia’s largest and rarest species of fish, was caught by accident last week in Stung Treng province when it swallowed a smaller fish that had taken a baited hook.

An international team of experts on the US-funded Wonders of the Mekong project worked with the fishermen to unhook the ray before weighing and measuring it and returning it unharmed to the river.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2022

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