When scientists heard reports that a large, mysterious fish had been caught in Cambodia in 2020, excitement stirred. Could this be the “Mekong Ghost,” they asked – an elusive fish that hadn’t been seen since 2005 and was feared extinct?
Photos of the fish and its telltale identifiers – an odd-shaped mouth and a protruding knob at its jaw – seemed to confirm it.
But the fish, which can grow as large as 66 pounds, was sold before scientists could get a closer look. It didn’t “feel like definitive proof,” said Zeb Hogan, a research biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, and head of the US government-funded Wonders of the Mekong project, an initiative to study and conserve one of the most biodiverse rivers in the world.
Three years later, they struck gold.
Cambodian fishermen caught two fish in the Mekong River, measuring between 11 and 13 pounds and two to three feet long. This time researchers were able to purchase and examine the fish for themselves.
“Even though the fishermen … hadn’t seen the fish before, they knew that they had something remarkable, unusual. They knew that it was worth contacting us,” said Hogan, part of an international team of scientists who work with the Cambodian fisheries department, in an interview with CNN.
The researchers published their findings on Tuesday in a study in the Biological Conservation journal.
It was a moment of celebration for the team, which works to protect the Mekong, one of the world’s longest rivers and a lifeline to tens of millions of people.
Credit: cnn.com
