Scientists, officials and fishermen released this 300-pound Mekong giant catfish back
into Cambodia’s Mekong River on December 10, 2024 after it was tagged.
(Credit: Chhut Chheana/USAID Wonders of the Mekong)
New Hope for Mekong Giant Catfish
Source: Wonders of the Mekong
Strict fishing regulations help bring back these incredible fish.
Six critically endangered Mekong giant catfish were caught within a span of six days last month in Cambodia’s Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, giving scientists and locals hope that a quarter century of conservation efforts might be paying off.
Each of the fish weighed between 200 and 300 pounds. They were caught, measured, tagged and released back into the rivers where caught. Scientists also collected DNA samples from each fish.
The Wonders of the Mekong project, a U.S.-funded conservation initiative, described the catch of so many giant catfish in just a few days as “a remarkable and unprecedented event”.
“I’ve never heard of this before,” said project leader Zeb Hogan, a research biologist at the University of Nevada Reno. “By tagging these fish, we gain critical information about their ecology, their migrations, their habitat … to try to help these fish survive in the future.”
The Mekong giant catfish has been known to reach nine feet and 646 pounds, making it one of the world’s largest freshwater fish. Unfortunately, numbers of these massive fish have plummeted by 80 percent just in the last 13 years due to overfishing, damming, siltation and destruction of spawning and breeding grounds. In response to these threats, Cambodia implemented strict fishing regulations in the Mekong River to protect giant catfish and other endangered species.
The presence of so many giant catfish together could indicate spawning activity and “new hope for the survival of a species that has become increasingly scarce in much of its native habitat,” Wonders of the Mekong representatives said. With continued efforts, the Mekong giant catfish may yet have a fighting chance to thrive in the wild once more.
