'World's Biggest' Freshwater Fish Netted (And Released!) in Cambodia

So you're a Cambodian fisherman out doing a spot of river fishing on the off chance you might catch something tasty when you hook this bad boy.


In what must of been a supreme feat of skill the unnamed fisherman had hooked a 300-kilogram stingray and along with it the right to gloat that he had caught the worlds largest known freshwater fish.
It seems his wife doesn't have any stingray recipe's and the fish was returned to the river after being tagged and documented ... so a happy day for all involved.
twitter.com...

The monstrous bottom-dweller beat the previous record for biggest recorded freshwater fish, held by a 293-kilogram (646-pound) Mekong giant catfish caught in Thailand in 2005, the US-funded Wonders of the Mekong research project said.

The stingray, caught in Stung Treng province in northern Cambodia, was more than twice the weight of an average lowland gorilla, the experts said.

"In 20 years of researching giant fish in rivers and lakes on six continents, this is the largest freshwater fish that we've encountered or that's been documented anywhere worldwide," Zeb Hogan, a fish biologist leading the Wonders of the Mekong project, said in a statement released Tuesday.

"This is an absolutely astonishing discovery, and justifies efforts to better understand the mysteries surrounding this species and the incredible stretch of river where it lives."
www.sciencealert.com...

I just want to know what was the poundage of line he was using !

That is a monster.

I'm just glad they let it live as it must have been a good age.

So glad they didn’t kill it! Thanks for sharing, she’s a beauty 👌🏼

a reply to: gortex

its not a story about fishing if one of us does not say

thats nothing I once caught a fish twice as big, it was in the days before camera phones, I took it home and fed my family for 3 months....its all true

Thats one funky fish.

Looks like the sorta thing that should be swimming around a bond villain’s lair.

I kinda want one. Having a stingray that weighs twice as much as a gorilla would be pretty cool.

Ignore the following, I skipped the freshwater / saltwater part and # up.


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Hate to be the one crashing the hype. Overblown article, not honest, omits facts.

First, I doubt this is a 300kg stingray. It's just not enough mass and I've seen a giant grouper once that tops this one in size in two dimensions and was around 3/4 the width of that stingray. That one was seen by other's too that day and the consens inside the diving station was it had around 250-280kg. Even if it has 300kg weight....

Just for example, the biggest giant grouper ever caught had 680 pounds, or roughly 308kg, topping this stingray. There had been seen bigger ones and estimated to around 450kg.

Third, stingrays belong to the fish class chondrichthyes, and sharks belong to that class too. So if we use the word "fish" that way... Whale sharks can gain up to around 12t in weight.

That's 40x more than this stingray had. I understand this is a huge find and marvelous but there is so much wrong with this article, I could go on and on.

a reply to: TDDAgain

It was weighed by expert Fish Biologists, apparently:


"Arriving at Kaoh Preah, the team determined that Thun’s fish, a female that appeared to be in good health, was the same ray species known to occur in the Mekong. But Thun had been right about her enormous size: more than 13 feet from snout to tail. After maneuvering the giant fish onto three scales placed next to each other, the researchers were shocked to see her weight: At 661 pounds, she set a new world record."

He's gonna need a bigger boat.

originally posted by: TDDAgain
Hate to be the one crashing the hype. Overblown article, not honest, omits facts.

First, I doubt this is a 300kg stingray. It's just not enough mass and I've seen a giant grouper once that tops this one in size in two dimensions and was around 3/4 the width of that stingray. That one was seen by other's too that day and the consens inside the diving station was it had around 250-280kg. Even if it has 300kg weight....

Just for example, the biggest giant grouper ever caught had 680 pounds, or roughly 308kg, topping this stingray. There had been seen bigger ones and estimated to around 450kg.

Third, stingrays belong to the fish class chondrichthyes, and sharks belong to that class too. So if we use the word "fish" that way... Whale sharks can gain up to around 12t in weight.

That's 40x more than this stingray had. I understand this is a huge find and marvelous but there is so much wrong with this article, I could go on and on.

The article says freshwater fish just for the record.

a reply to: TDDAgain

And actually weighed, not estimated.

Makes my biggest Carp of 45lb look like a tiddler!

a reply to: TDDAgain

Everything you named is saltwater. This is specifically the largest freshwater fish. And it was actually weighed.

Well I should learn to read then!

I'll let it sit with an edit. Not going to hide my stupidity here.

a reply to: gortex

Given the size/age and the bottom-feeding aspect, it likely wouldn't have tasted very good. Glad they let it go; very cool to see that sucker is massive.

originally posted by: TDDAgain
Well I should learn to read then!

I'll let it sit with an edit. Not going to hide my stupidity here.

Happens to us all, but it isn't stupidity, or Id likely to be doing the same thing more often than I do.

Here's a video of the fish in action and its release.

originally posted by: Hypntick
a reply to: gortex

Given the size/age and the bottom-feeding aspect, it likely wouldn't have tasted very good. Glad they let it go; very cool to see that sucker is massive.

Halibut are bottom feeders similar in appearance to stingrays, and are wonderful eating! Stingrays taste like shark to some, others compare it to scallops or lobster. I've not heard of the rule the younger, the better tasting as in land animals, and it seems the thousands of dollars one large tuna can bring might indicate size and flavor doesn't apply to fish.

I could be wrong, as I'm not a fish lover; unless it's halibut or scallops.

a reply to: gortex

I just want to know what was the poundage of line he was using !

Me too . And how long it took to get it in the boat.
They just will not give up , and even small ones can put a bend on a deep sea rod .