Grizzly-sized Catfish Caught in Thailand 452
An anonymous reader writes "Fishermen in northern Thailand have netted a fish as big as a grizzly bear, a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish, the heaviest recorded since Thai officials started keeping records in 1981. The behemoth was caught in the Mekong River and may be the largest freshwater fish ever found."
Wow.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wow.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Wow.. (Score:3, Informative)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/p
Largest Fish (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Largest Fish (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Largest Fish (Score:3, Funny)
I thought for sure something was going to happen like the fish falling back through the hole in the
Re:Largest Fish (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Largest Fish (Score:3, Informative)
Wipe them all out! (Score:2, Funny)
Well not this one anymore...
The Fools!! (Score:2)
And eaten? (Score:2)
Wow. I hope they have freezers. That's a lot of fish!
--
Northern Virginia? [fairfaxunderground.com]
It was THIS BIG!!! (Score:3, Funny)
news for nerds... stuff that matters... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:news for nerds... stuff that matters... (Score:4, Funny)
Bottom Feeder (Score:5, Funny)
I don't suppose we could feed it Darl McBride?
Re:Bottom Feeder (Score:5, Funny)
Just wait 'til PETA hears about this! Catfish have feelings too, you know.
Re:Bottom Feeder (Score:2)
Re:Bottom Feeder (Score:4, Funny)
Ask commercial divers who work in the Mississippi (Score:2, Interesting)
Some divers, upon seeing them, quit diving that same day.
Re:Ask commercial divers who work in the Mississip (Score:3, Funny)
Having said that I get scared by pike when I'm diving so I probably shouldn't be commenting.
Re:Ask commercial divers who work in the Mississip (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ask commercial divers who work in the Mississip (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh well it must be true then. After all , who needs empirical evidence when you've got common knowledge. Hell , why did we even bother with the last 200 years of science when we could have just asked local yokels for an explanation for everything!
Re:Ask commercial divers who work in the Mississip (Score:4, Funny)
The first rule is, you use nothing but natural, untreated, chemical free hickory. You build up a nice big roaring fire with the hickory and let it burn down until all that's left is red hot smoldering coals.
While the fire is burning down, gut the fish, leaving the skin and bones in, and pack it in ice to keep it nice and fresh. Once the fire is ready, take a fresh cut hickory plank, and nail the catfish to it, with a single nail between the eyes. Wrap the fish and board up in aluminum foil, and bury it down in the smoldering embers.
Allow the fish to cook down in the embers for at least an hour, letting the meat get so tender it begins to fall into pieces. Unwrap the foil, pull out the nail, dump the fish in the river, and eat the board. There you go, the best catfish you'll ever have!
Re:Ask commercial divers who work in the Mississip (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Ask commercial divers who work in the Mississip (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ask commercial divers who work in the Mississip (Score:5, Informative)
Obviously, this doesn't come close to 650lbs like the one from the Mekong. But it does come close to the one you linked.
Personally, I could care less who has the biggest fish. I'm just sick of people looking for every possible opportunity to rant about how dumb and ridiculous they think Americans are.
Re:Ask commercial divers who work in the Mississip (Score:5, Funny)
J.
Endangered species (Score:4, Insightful)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0
Still who cares about extinction, if you can get a nice photo out of it?
Read around TFA (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Endangered species (Score:2, Interesting)
threats to the giant catfish include commercial fishing, their touting to tourists as a food said to impart wisdom, and dynamite blasting of their spawning ground.
Maybe photos of the big one aren't the problem
Re:Endangered species (Score:3, Funny)
"IT'S COMMING RIGHT FOR US!!!!"
Heal Thyself (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's hoping those organisms that don't "fit with our way of life" don't eventually include our own species. Natural selection includes you and me, too, however "slightly different" you think we may be. And mass extinctions don't tend to leave the same species at the top of the pyramid, unless you're counting prokaryotic cells or something.
Environmentalism is enlightened self-interest, not some tree-hugging, static-world conceit about spotted owls and condors being awfully kewl.
I for one (Score:4, Funny)
how to die (Score:5, Funny)
Local environmentalists and government officials negotiated to release the record-breaking animal[...]
But the fish, an adult male, later died. "
Being eaten does that you.
Re:how to die (Score:2)
Re:how to die (Score:2, Funny)
Geez, was there any doubt that it was adult? I'd
release something into my pants if I was in a
river with one of those things and found out
it was a juvenile
- Moomin
Re:how to die (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:how to die (Score:3, Funny)
Six hundred pounds of catfish? I think they meant to say "eaten by a remote village in Thailand"
Article on this amazing species (Score:5, Informative)
Here is a photo [nationalgeographic.com] of a giant stingray from the same area.
Re:Article on this amazing species (Score:2, Interesting)
Well look at the source. Of course National Geographic will represent them as "on the way out". When was the last NG special you've seen that doesn't spend half the time talking about the doomed earth.
I sure miss those old nature specials that told us about animal behavior and not human behavior.
Re:Article on this amazing species (Score:5, Insightful)
Second, National Geographic's statements regarding the catfish are factually correct. Please read and re-read that statement -- "statements regarding the catfish are factually correct". Please stop dismissing factually correct information as some sort of leftist bias...
Re:Today's Republican Moment, Brought To You.... (Score:3, Funny)
When the gorillas were endangered, I didn't speak up, because I'm not a gorilla.
When the condors were endangered, I didn't speak up, because I'm not a condor.
When I was endangered, no one was left to speak up for me.
Re:Today's Republican Moment, Brought To You.... (Score:4, Funny)
When the gorillas were endangered, I didn't speak up, because gorillas are not tasty.
When the condors were endangered, I didn't speak up, because condors are not tasty.
When cows were endangered, I was pissed!!!!.
Full Resolution AP Photo (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Full Resolution AP Photo (Score:4, Funny)
This reenforces my belief in Cod... (Score:2)
Ridiculously obscure reference: (Score:2)
Noodling (Score:2)
General Sherman? (Score:2)
Killing Big Fish (Score:5, Informative)
it appears that killing the largest and oldest fish has a disproportionate effect on the population as the big ones tend to be the most prolific breeders.
The Mekong giant catfish would be an awful lot better off if this particular great-great-granddaddy/grandmommy had stayed in the water.
Mekong people consider fish "sacred" (Score:3, Interesting)
An interesting quote from this National Geographic article [nationalgeographic.com]:
Perhaps damming and irrigation practices have contributed more to this fish's decline than overfishing.
Some photos of fish caught in the same area (Score:4, Informative)
They said they had one (Score:2)
Nice Photoshopping (Score:2)
story of this fish in german (Score:3, Interesting)
More Photos Here, Plus Other Cryptid Catfish (Score:5, Informative)
There are some great photos here at National Geographic's Article [nationalgeographic.com] on the fish. My favorite photo is the one with an elderly gent cutting a steak larger than his torso. Dang! At that size I wonder if they taste any good?
Of course, Giant Catfish are the stuff of legends [about.com], and usually have a kernal of truth. [xvella.free.fr] (Links to other whoppers there as well)
Usually tales of the "big one that got away" or, in this case, "Catfish the size of Volkswagon Bugs" are dismissed, but according to Loren Coleman's "Mysterious America" [amazon.com] (March 2004 ed.
Preservation of giant catfish is part of the WWF's mission, too, in Thailand & Cambodia. Just this month four giant catfish bred in captivity were released into the Mekong. [practicalf...ping.co.uk] So Giant Catfish are real in the Amazon, Europe, Asia, etc., but cryptozoological here in the States. Would be cool if they weren't, though.
This psuedoreport brought to you by Insomnia(TM)
Re:More Photos Here, Plus Other Cryptid Catfish (Score:5, Interesting)
If you're really skeptical, visit the natural history museum at the University of Kansas to see skeletons and pictures of catfish taken (by hand by divers) in the Kansas River just a hundred years ago.
Soon to be the least asked question (Score:2)
Largest fish (Score:2)
Giant Catfish... (Score:4, Interesting)
I remember reading in local papers at least a few times in the past 15 years or so that one of exceptionally impressive size had been caught. Now, the funny thing is I have actually seen photos, polaroids even, of these fish since I was a child and never thought twice about it. What I always thought was "Some catfish get really big, some get insanely big." The largest photo I saw was of a huge, fat, disgusting catfish that really DID fill the bed of a small truck. (Think 80's/90's S10 pickup).
The largest catfish I've ever seen personally (not counting photos) was not quite that big. It was only about 3-4 feet long (almost as tall as my little brother at the time. I have pictures somewhere...)
I never even stopped to think that the fish wasn't just big, but actually an endangered variety of fish.
As I do some reading on the internet about Giant Catfish in this area I find very little, or at least nothing "Official". So that makes me wonder if it isn't the case that people around here are just "used to it" and the word doesn't really spread to those who might be interested in exactly this sort of thing?
Maybe these creatures are more common than one might think? Still, I would have to assume they are endagered.
I do know there is/was an 80 lb catfish on display at the Tennessee Aquarium. Though that really isn't in the same league as most giant catfish.
That's no catfish... (Score:2, Funny)
Why is this on Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
If they are REAL fishermen... (Score:2)
Cartoon fishing (Score:4, Interesting)
What the hell? I thought that was a joke in cartoons. People actually fish en masse like that? Does it even work?
Explosives and more (Score:5, Interesting)
Unfortunately, in the more unregulated fishing areas in the World, explosive, and cyanide fishing is still popular.
The premise behind explosive fishing is to lob down a couple of sticks of your favourite explosive, and then wait for the stunned fish to float to the surface before scooping them into your boat. Unfortunately, it is extremely indiscriminate, can damage the remaining fish, and can cause extensive underwater damage to the seafloor.
Cyanide fishing is just as bad, where divers puff a small amount of cyanide into the water to stun fish before collection. This keeps the fish live, and results in no external physical damage. On a broader scale, mass poison release for wider area fishing is less effective, but just as dangerous to sealife. The other problem is that fish collect toxins in their bodies which then get passed through the food chain, to us.
If you wondered how they got the live fish into the tank at some Asian restaurants, it could very well be the result of cyanide fishing, especially if they are claiming them to be wild fish.I'll certainly be... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I'll certainly be... (Score:3, Interesting)
Baby? (Score:2)
Quick! (Score:2)
Give a man a fish... (Score:4, Funny)
Teach a man to fish, and [insert your own punchline here]
Re:Give a man a fish... (Score:5, Insightful)
Paddlefish (Score:3, Interesting)
The biggest fish that I've caught in my life weighed 30 lbs., and it seemed like a monster. I don't think I want to catch a fish that weighs more than I do.
Noodling for the Mekong Catfish? (Score:3, Funny)
Noodling [go.com] for catfish is popular in Oklahoma. I would argue that, after tractor pull, it is the greatest contribution of redneck culture to American sport. I hope that news of the Mekong Catfish will lead Oklahoma's best to the ultimate challenge. Who will be catching whom?
Re:Sounds tasty...but probly not edible... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Sounds tasty...but probly not edible... (Score:2, Informative)
Yeah, you'll need to get rid of all the Agent Orange.
Definitely edible! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Forget SE Asia for a moment... (Score:2, Insightful)
Including pork? (Score:2)
Just curious. They will eat some pretty nasty things.
Re:Forget SE Asia for a moment... (Score:4, Informative)
that said, this thing is NOT for eating (though they did eat it). Big freshwater fish like that a usually full of worms and are disgusting. We have lots of 50 lb. cats where I live, but no one would think of eating one.
Re:Forget SE Asia for a moment... (Score:3, Interesting)
That being said, I have found that the minority of large cats I catch have worms or other visible parrasites. I have seen a few though. In the ohio river they are hit and miss. It seems that strong healthy fish are
Re:Forget SE Asia for a moment... (Score:3, Interesting)
Most people think crabmeat is the most delicious meat in the world, certainly better than any steak. Crabs are the biggest bottom feeders of all. Same for lobsters and crawfish.
Re:Forget SE Asia for a moment... (Score:2)
Re:Catch records a good idea? (Score:2)
The big fish usually go to the restaurants in Bangkok or Chiang Mai, where they go for a very high price. The locals would much rather sell it and be able to buy food for a few months than eat it in one feast. Maybe this village didn't have transport to get it there fresh.
Re:i thought the /. motto was... (Score:2)
Re:i thought the /. motto was... (Score:3, Informative)
It's not the fish that matters..... (Score:2, Funny)
The stuff that matters is the creation of new metrics for describing fish size...that unit being the "grizzly bear".
This really gets rid of restrictions placed on fishey stories when using pounds, feet and inches.
Re:It's not the fish that matters..... (Score:2)
Jimmy: How big?
Joe-Bob: At least 2 grizzly bears!
Jimmy: American or European?
Joe-Bob: Huh? I-- I don't know that! Auuuuuuugh!
Re:It's not the fish that matters..... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:i thought the /. motto was... (Score:4, Interesting)
Keeping and appreciating animals can be quite a geeky trait, aquarists included. Fishkeeping is a hobby that I'm starting to get into and the more I learn, the more I see geek potential.
Take for example, keeping a tank. Monitoring the nitrogen cycle by examining levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate is necessary for a healthy aquarium. You even get to break out the test-tubes and droppers like you're Gil Grissom!
Catfish, like the one in the article (albeit smaller, of course) are a popular choice for community aquariums because they are interesting animals that add variety. A lot of attention is given to ancestry - new and rare breeds can be very expensive indeed and each new type is meticulously labelled. I bet there are hundreds of Slashdotters reading this article and thinking to themselves 'I need a bigger tank', and are thinking of a place in the house to situate a 100,000 gallon bowfront...
Once you buy a fish tank, you never go back. Multiple Tank Syndrome (MTS) is an industry-recognised condition that's uttered with both humour and sincerity. Setting up your own ecosystem - choosing plants, substrate and decorations, as well as the fish - is like case modding, only it actually looks good.
Read around TFA (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Congratulations (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Congratulations (Score:2)
It seem to indicate:
1) They didn't know it was the 'oldest living thing on earth' when they cut it down, since that species of tree can't be dated accurately with core samples.
2) It was the oldest known *tree* on earth. Not the oldest 'living thing', which is something difficult to determine anyway. There are 43,000 year old strains of King's holly [tas.gov.au] which (I think) would be the oldest plant, depending whether you consider vegetative reproduction to create a 'new individu
Re:Congratulations (Score:2)
Re:Human Instincts (Score:2, Funny)
can you make mine rare.
Re:Human Instincts (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Human Instincts (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Human Instincts (Score:2, Insightful)
In other news... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Did no one think (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Did no one think (Score:3, Informative)
1. Catfish are predisposed to growing quite large if given sufficient space.
2. The Mekong Giant Catfish is a sub-species that generally grows to humongous sizes. People catch record setting or near record setting catfish in the Mekong river every year. There's nothing unnatural about it.
The real problem at the moment is that the popularity of these catfish has some worried [cnn.com] that they will be fished to extinction.
Pics of Catfish caught [thaifishingguide.com]
A 140 pound Catfish caught in Texas [about.com]