Joe Harker
A Cambodian fisherman who hooked a 661-pound giant stingray may have hooked the largest freshwater fish ever discovered.
VT reports that a 42-year-old fisherman named Moul Thun caught the absolute unit of a giant stingray on the Mekong River on 13 June.
He then contacted a team of scientists from the Wonders of Mekong research project who arrived to weigh and evaluate the massive fish.
The stingray has been nicknamed 'Boramy', which means 'full moon' in the Khemer language.
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Those hoping for the world's largest fish supper might be disappointed, as the world's chonkiest stingray was returned to the river to swim another day.
The team of scientists also tagged the giant stingray so they can track its movements and learn more about the behaviour of the species as they swim around in the freshwater rivers they call home.
Experts had a major job sizing up the mighty creature as they had to slide a tarpaulin underneath it, use three weighing scales and keep sprinkling it with water to keep the massive aquatic beast alive.
The 661-pound stingray was more than 13 feet long, only adding to the impressive nature of the catch.
They noted it had a toothless mouth 'the size of a banana' and 'gripping pads' used to crush unfortunate prey that were destined to end up in the belly of a 661-pound giant stingray.
Scientists deduced that Boramy was a healthy female giant stingray who should survive her ordeal of being caught and can expect a happy future back in the water doing whatever it is giant stingrays do.
That would probably be scouring the bottom of the river for shrimps and small fish it can suck up and eat, and given the size of Boramy she's probably eaten a lot of them.
According to the Daily Mail, the previous record for the largest freshwater fish caught was a 646-pound catfish nabbed in Thailand in 2005.
To ensure he wasn't out of pocket thanks to his catch being thrown back, Moul Thun was reportedly paid around $600 for his record breaking discovery.
Giant stingray are endangered species according to Wonders of the Mekong leader Zeb Hogan, who warned that large fish are a 'high-value species' which need a long time to fully mature.
If they're caught before they grow to a proper size then they don't reproduce, meaning overfishing poses a particular problem to big fish as the population can struggle to sustain itself.
As for Boramy, let's hope she can avoid getting caught again while providing scientists some crucial information on how she and others like her live.
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