The world’s heaviest freshwater fish, a 661-pound stingray, caught in Cambodia

A fisherman caught the giant ray on the night of June 13, said Chea Selia, a member of a joint US-Cambodian research team known as the Wonders of the Mekong that is documenting freshwater fish. The fisherman contacted his crew the next morning, Chea said. The skate was weighed and then released.

Before the capture, locals told investigators they were seeing large “black shadows under the water at night,” Chea said in a telephone interview. “They believed they were spirits. I think it was the stripes,” she said.

Nearly a third of all freshwater fish species are in danger of extinction, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature; since 1970, populations of freshwater fish weighing 66 pounds or more have declined by 94 percent. In 2020 alone, 16 species were declared extinct, including the Chinese paddlefish.

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“I was worried that we would see [more extinctions] before seeing records broken,” said Zeb Hogan, a 48-year-old biologist who has spent his two-decade career researching large freshwater fish. “The fact that this record-breaking fish was found is primarily significant because it shows that there is still hope for these fish,” he said.

Hogan had just finished writing a manuscript for his book titled “In search of the largest fish in the world”. In the draft of it, Hogan describes how in 2005, locals in Thailand found the largest freshwater fish in history. But last week, Hogan had to update him, after hearing from the Wonders of Mekong team in Cambodia, which he runs with the help of the US government (Wonders of the Mekong is founded by the United States Agency for International Development).

The 661-pound skate is also the fourth large freshwater fish found in that area of ​​the Mekong River since April 22, when Hogan’s team began asking local fishermen to report any large fish they see. That suggests the area, near the fishing village of Koh Preah, 140 miles northeast of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, could be a breeding ground for freshwater stingrays that need to be conserved. “I think we can call it a striping hot spot,” Hogan said.

Cambodian fisheries officials are now planning an international workshop that will seek to engage experts from Vietnam, Laos and Thailand to discuss how to best protect surviving freshwater fish in the area, Hogan said.

The Mekong, which is longer than the Mississippi at an estimated 2,700 miles, meanders through mainland Southeast Asia through all four countries, meaning conservation efforts need to be coordinated. Cambodian officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Hogan spoke by phone from a vacation in Hawaii with his family. When asked if his family was okay with him working during his vacation, Hogan shrugged.

“I’ve spent the last 20 years of my life focused on this issue,” said Hogan, who has hosted a show called “Monster Fish with Zeb Hogan” on Nat Geo Wild. “So I wouldn’t miss this for the world. And yes, my family is on board too,” he said.