Cambodian fishermen hook enormous, endangered freshwater stingray

The stingray, measuring four metres in length and weighing 180kg, was caught by accident after it swallowed a smaller fish that had taken a baited hook

An international team on the US-funded Wonders of the Mekong project worked to unhook the fish and return it unharmed to the river

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The female giant freshwater stingray was caught and released in the Mekong River in Cambodia’s Stung Treng province. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:56pm, 11 May 2022Updated: 7:04pm, 11 May 2022

Cambodian fishermen on the Mekong River got a shock when they inadvertently hooked an endangered giant freshwater stingray four metres long and weighing 180kg, 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.

The giant Mekong is a crucial habitat for a vast array of species large and small, but project leader Zeb Hogan, a fish biologist from the University of Nevada, said the river’s underwater ecosystem was poorly understood.

“They are unseen worlds, underappreciated and out of sight,” he said in a statement issued by his university.

More than 1,000 fish species call the Mekong home and the stingray is not the only giant lurking in the muddy waters – the giant catfish and giant barb also reach up to three metres long and 270kg in weight.