dogfish
02-04-2009, 06:04 AM
:dribble:Let's hear em or see em. :fishing:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/international/asia/26thailand.html?_r=1&incamp=article_popular_2
Truly, It Was a Whopper, but Are There Bigger Fish?
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/08/26/international/26thai583.jpg Suthep Kritsanavarin
Measuring 9 feet long and weighing 646 pounds, this giant catfish from the Mekong River may be the biggest freshwater fish ever recorded.
By SETH MYDANS (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=SETH MYDANS&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=SETH MYDANS&inline=nyt-per)
Published: August 26, 2005
HAT KHRAI, Thailand (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/thailand/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) - The monster fish announced itself with four huge whacks of its tail, thrashing against the net that had trapped it in the pale brown water of the Mekong River.
Skip to next paragraph (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/international/asia/26thailand.html?_r=1&incamp=article_popular_2#secondParagraph) http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/08/26/international/26thai184.2.jpg Suthep Kritsanavarin
Fishermen at Hat Khrai slice the catfish for sale. The giant catfish have been disappearing fast, with only a few now caught.
It was a rare giant catfish the size of a grizzly bear, and it took five boatmen an hour to pull it in and 10 men to lift it when they reached the shore in this remote village in northern Thailand.
Only after their catch had been chopped into pieces and sold did they learn how special it was. At nine feet in length and weighing 646 pounds, it may be the biggest freshwater fish ever recorded.
But in one of the world's more surprising mysteries, nobody really knows which is the biggest species of fish lurking under the waters of the Mekong or the Amazon or the Yangtze or the Congo or the Colorado (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/colorado/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) or Lake Baikal.
When the giant catfish was caught in May, a biologist named Zeb S. Hogan rushed here to take a look. It was his first trophy in a project to identify and study the world's largest freshwater fish in the hope of slowing their extinction.
Sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the World Wildlife Fund, Mr. Hogan has embarked on an 18-month expedition that will take him to five continents and more than a dozen rivers.
"I guess it's like looking for Bigfoot," he said. Some species may already be too rare to study.
He has started with the Mekong, which he said has seven species of giant fish, more than any other river, along with at least 750 other species. All of them are threatened - like river fish around the world - by overfishing, pollution and development, including major dam projects.
The Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) may be the first to disappear from the river, he said. The few that remain can be spotted now only in central Cambodia (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/cambodia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) and here, just below the Golden Triangle, where northern Thailand, Laos (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/laos/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) and Myanmar (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/myanmar/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) meet.
No one has made a credible claim to top this year's trophy, Mr. Hogan said.
It is five times the size of the biggest catfish recorded in the United States (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/unitedstates/index.html?inline=nyt-geo), a 121-pound Mississippi (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/mississippi/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) River fish that was also caught in May.
The monster fish was one of just three giant catfish caught in Thailand this year.
Before he headed out on May 1, one of the men who caught it, Thirayuth Panthayom, 29, made sure luck would be on his side. He said he prayed at the shrine of the God of Catfish and begged his boat to help him, "Please, Miss Boat, let me catch something today and I'll sacrifice a chicken for you."
He said he had only been out for 15 minutes when he saw the fish smack the water four times with its tail - "Pung! Pung! Pung! Pung!" It took his crew an hour to pull it in.
His father, as owner of the boat, earned nearly $2,000 for the fish from the village fishing association, a fortune in rural Thailand. Mr. Thirayuth, like the other four members of the crew, got $175 of this, which he said he gave right back to his father.
As required by its permit to fish for these endangered catfish, the village association then sold it to the Department of Fisheries, which harvests their eggs and sperm as part of a captive breeding program.
After that, the fish are to be returned to the river, but few have survived the harvesting process, in which hormone injections are administered and the belly is vigorously massaged and manipulated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/international/asia/26thailand.html?_r=1&incamp=article_popular_2
Truly, It Was a Whopper, but Are There Bigger Fish?
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/08/26/international/26thai583.jpg Suthep Kritsanavarin
Measuring 9 feet long and weighing 646 pounds, this giant catfish from the Mekong River may be the biggest freshwater fish ever recorded.
By SETH MYDANS (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=SETH MYDANS&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=SETH MYDANS&inline=nyt-per)
Published: August 26, 2005
HAT KHRAI, Thailand (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/thailand/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) - The monster fish announced itself with four huge whacks of its tail, thrashing against the net that had trapped it in the pale brown water of the Mekong River.
Skip to next paragraph (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/international/asia/26thailand.html?_r=1&incamp=article_popular_2#secondParagraph) http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/08/26/international/26thai184.2.jpg Suthep Kritsanavarin
Fishermen at Hat Khrai slice the catfish for sale. The giant catfish have been disappearing fast, with only a few now caught.
It was a rare giant catfish the size of a grizzly bear, and it took five boatmen an hour to pull it in and 10 men to lift it when they reached the shore in this remote village in northern Thailand.
Only after their catch had been chopped into pieces and sold did they learn how special it was. At nine feet in length and weighing 646 pounds, it may be the biggest freshwater fish ever recorded.
But in one of the world's more surprising mysteries, nobody really knows which is the biggest species of fish lurking under the waters of the Mekong or the Amazon or the Yangtze or the Congo or the Colorado (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/colorado/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) or Lake Baikal.
When the giant catfish was caught in May, a biologist named Zeb S. Hogan rushed here to take a look. It was his first trophy in a project to identify and study the world's largest freshwater fish in the hope of slowing their extinction.
Sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the World Wildlife Fund, Mr. Hogan has embarked on an 18-month expedition that will take him to five continents and more than a dozen rivers.
"I guess it's like looking for Bigfoot," he said. Some species may already be too rare to study.
He has started with the Mekong, which he said has seven species of giant fish, more than any other river, along with at least 750 other species. All of them are threatened - like river fish around the world - by overfishing, pollution and development, including major dam projects.
The Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) may be the first to disappear from the river, he said. The few that remain can be spotted now only in central Cambodia (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/cambodia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) and here, just below the Golden Triangle, where northern Thailand, Laos (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/laos/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) and Myanmar (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/myanmar/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) meet.
No one has made a credible claim to top this year's trophy, Mr. Hogan said.
It is five times the size of the biggest catfish recorded in the United States (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/unitedstates/index.html?inline=nyt-geo), a 121-pound Mississippi (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/mississippi/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) River fish that was also caught in May.
The monster fish was one of just three giant catfish caught in Thailand this year.
Before he headed out on May 1, one of the men who caught it, Thirayuth Panthayom, 29, made sure luck would be on his side. He said he prayed at the shrine of the God of Catfish and begged his boat to help him, "Please, Miss Boat, let me catch something today and I'll sacrifice a chicken for you."
He said he had only been out for 15 minutes when he saw the fish smack the water four times with its tail - "Pung! Pung! Pung! Pung!" It took his crew an hour to pull it in.
His father, as owner of the boat, earned nearly $2,000 for the fish from the village fishing association, a fortune in rural Thailand. Mr. Thirayuth, like the other four members of the crew, got $175 of this, which he said he gave right back to his father.
As required by its permit to fish for these endangered catfish, the village association then sold it to the Department of Fisheries, which harvests their eggs and sperm as part of a captive breeding program.
After that, the fish are to be returned to the river, but few have survived the harvesting process, in which hormone injections are administered and the belly is vigorously massaged and manipulated.