World's largest freshwater fish found in Mekong, scientists say
A 300kg (661lb) stingray caught in the Mekong river in Cambodia is the biggest freshwater fish ever documented, scientists say. It unseated the previous record-holder, a 646lb (293kg) Mekong giant catfish caught in Thailand in 2005. There is no official record-keeping or database of the world's biggest freshwater fish. The Mekong is rich in biodiversity but overfishing, dams and pollution threaten its fragile ecosystem. It flows from the Tibetan Plateau through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. "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," said Zeb Hogan, a biologist who leads Wonders of the Mekong, a USAID-funded conservation project. "Finding and documenting this fish is remarkable, and a rare positive sign of hope, even more so because it occurred in the Mekong, a river that's currently facing m