What is the Largest Fish that Ever Lived?

At present, the record holder of the world's largest freshwater fish is the Mekong giant catfish. The challengers that may compete with it are stingrays from a large river in Cambodia and Chinese sturgeon from the Yangtze River in China.

The world's largest freshwater fish

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Hagan believes that the danger of extinction of this kind of fish mainly comes from overfishing, dam construction and the controversial Mekong navigation project. He mentioned: "The Mekong navigation project carries out dredging and blasting operations where giant catfish spawn. The survival of sturgeon is undoubtedly very dangerous. "

Hagan pointed out that species like giant carps, once they reach 300 kg, are extremely sensitive to the negative effects of fishing because they take a long time to grow to sexual maturity. "This kind of big fish has huge reproductive potential. A good spawning year may cause great changes in the number, but excessive adult fish killing may also cause the number to drop sharply," he said.

Scientists believe that giant stingrays are also at risk of extinction in rivers like the Mekong. There are reports that this fish can reach 500 kilograms and 5 meters in length. If this is the case, it will exceed the current world record holder Mekong giant catfish.

"According to the fisherman's original report, we believe that big stingrays may still be present in deep pools in northern Cambodia, but until now, no one has explicitly identified this species," Hogan said.