Rare large Mekong catfish spotted in Cambodia, raising conservation hopes

Locals with the Mekong giant catfish in Cambodia’s Tboung Khmum Province. Pic/AFP

Six critically endangered Mekong giant catfish - one of the largest and rarest freshwater fish in the world - were caught and released recently in Cambodia, reviving hopes for the survival of the species.

The underwater giants can grow up to 10 feet (3 metres) long and weigh up to 300 kg (661 pounds), or as heavy as a grand piano. They now are only found in Southeast Asia's Mekong River but in the past inhabited the length of the 4,900-km-long river, all the way from its outlet in Vietnam to its northern reaches in China's Yunnan province.

The species' population has plummeted by 80 per cent in recent decades due to rising pressures from overfishing, dams that block the migratory path the fish follow to spawn and other disruptions.

Few of the millions of people who depend on the Mekong for their livelihoods have ever seen a giant catfish. To find six of the giants, which were caught and released within five days, is unprecedented. The first two were on the Tonle Sap river, a tributary of the Mekong not far from Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. They were given identification tags and released. On Tuesday, fishermen caught four more. The ish were apparently migrating from their habitats near Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake.

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