A fisherman has caught the largest freshwater fish known to date in the Mekong in Cambodia. The man lost a giant freshwater stingray weighing almost 300 kilograms (Urogymnus polylepis) online, as stated on the Facebook page of the “Wonders of Mekong” research project. The project team led by Zeb Hogan from the University of Nevada in Reno provided the fish with a transmitter and has since released it again.
The animal is a female that measures almost four meters in length. The fisherman caught the stingray on June 13 in Stung Treng province and informed Hogan’s team of his find. The experts are now hoping that the transmitter data will tell them more about the migration paths and behavior of the stingray. The research group gave the animal the name Boramy – the word means “full moon” in Khmer. The fish was released back into the Mekong on the day of the full moon, and it is also a common nickname for women in Cambodia.
A catfish caught in the Mekong in northern Thailand in 2005 was thought to be the largest freshwater fish. He weighed about 293 kilograms. However, this animal was killed and sold for consumption, as reported by »National Geographic«.