CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Giant Catfish to Be Released in Cambodia
June 14, 2005 9:50 AM EDT
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Four giant catfish will be released back into the wild in Cambodia to try to boost numbers of the species thought to be on the verge of extinction, a wildlife conservation group said Tuesday.

The fish, which weigh about 110 pounds each, have been raised in captivity for the past seven years and will hopefully reproduce after they are returned to the Mekong River, said Seng Teak, country director of the World Wildlife Fund.

"The release is very significant for the preservation of this species for the future," he said.

At a ceremony Wednesday, officials will free the fish at a junction of the Mekong and one of its tributaries, the Tonle Sap, in the capital of Phnom Penh, the group said.

The adult fish were captured when they were small and have been raised in ponds, the statement said. It did not say whether the ponds were privately owned or located at government fisheries.

The Mekong giant catfish - known among Cambodians as "the king of fish" - can grow to nearly 10 feet long and a weight of 660 pounds.

Some people in the Mekong countries of Southeast Asia believe the species has been fished for thousands of years.

But in recent years, its population has dwindled due to overfishing, dam building and navigation projects. It has been listed as critically endangered after research showed its numbers had fallen by at least 80 percent over the past 13 years.

Seng Teak said there were concerns the fish might have problems adjusting to the natural environment as they had been raised in captivity for so long.

"But if they can adapt to the wild and breed in their natural habitat, that can increase the population in the future," he said. "This is our hope because the giant catfish species is almost extinct and the few that remain are under threat."

Prior to their release, they will be fitted with tags meant to warn fishermen that they must be kept alive and returned to the wild, the statement said.

Hey Dan just wanted to say some interesting posts, thanks for copying them here, myself I don't get the chance to get to reading those stories else where, so my "thumbs up" to you.

Thanks. Seem to have been an unusual number of them lately. One that I didn't see online was a TV report about a 200+ pound catfish someone caught, I think in Tennessee or Missouri.

BANGKOK, Thailand - Thai fishermen caught a 646-pound catfish believed to have been the world's largest freshwater fish ever recorded, a researcher said Thursday.

The 8.9 feet Mekong giant catfish was netted May 1 by villagers in Chiang Khong, a remote district in northern Thailand, and weighed by Thai fisheries department officials, said Zeb Hogan, who leads an international project to locate and study the world's largest freshwater fish species.

He confirmed it was the heaviest recorded fish since Thailand started keeping records in 1981.

"This is the largest individual fish of the species that's listed as the biggest in the Guinness Book of World Records," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

The fishermen had hoped to sell the fish to environmental groups, which planned to release it to spawn upriver, but it died before it could be handed over, and was later chopped up and sold in pieces to villagers to be eaten.

Hogan, whose work is funded by the World Wildlife Fund and the National Geographic Society, said he is planning to write a paper about the catch to be published in a scientific journal. "That's the best way to document this kind of thing," he said.

The Mekong giant catfish — which shares the title of largest freshwater fish with a close relative, the dog-eating catfish — was listed as endangered in 2003 after research showed its numbers had fallen by at least 80 percent over the past 13 years.

Fishermen believe the catfish species has been declining largely because of dams and environmental damage along the Mekong River — home to more species of giant fish than any other river, an earlier statement by WWF and National Geographic Society said.