Monstrous Stingrays Found Near Thai City
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April 29, 2008—Recreational fishers and biologist Zeb Hogan
(wearing cap) hold a live, 14-foot-long (4.3-meter-long) giant
freshwater stingray the fishers caught in the Bang Pakong River in
Chachoengsao, Thailand, on March 31, 2008.
After weeks of combing remote Southeast Asian rivers for giant
freshwater stingrays—possibly the largest freshwater fish in the
world—Hogan finally found the creature near a Thai city. To his
surprise, she gave birth soon after capture. (Read full story.)
There are accounts of freshwater stingrays growing as large as 1,000
pounds (450 kilograms), which could make them the largest freshwater
fish in the world, Hogan said.
Hogan runs the National Geographic Society's Megafishes Project, an effort to document 20 or so freshwater giants. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)
The giant river rays are extremely difficult to catch, as they
bury themselves in mud when hooked. They routinely break fishers' lines
and bend finger-size hooks straight to escape capture.
The ray's deadly barb, located at the base of its whiplike
tail—and wrapped in a cloth in this picture—can easily puncture skin
and bone.
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