Stingray, I can… whoah.

The British press has been all over this, but a fisherman (and biologist) landed a record-sized stingray in Thailand:

Guardian:
A British angler – with a dozen helpers – has landed what could be the biggest freshwater fish ever caught with a rod and line, it emerged today.

The giant freshwater stingray, weighing as much as 350kg (772lbs, or about 55 stone), was the size of a garden shed and so cumbersome that Ian Welch had to enlist the aid of 12 other people to get it out of the water.

Welch, a professional fisherman, biologist and columnist for the magazine Angler’s Mail, was visiting Thailand to help with a stingray tagging programme when he landed the monster in the Maeklong river. The 45-year-old said he was nearly pulled over the side of the boat when the specimen took his bait.

He said: “It dragged me across the boat and would have pulled me in had my colleague not grabbed my trousers – it was like the whole earth had just moved. I knew it was going to a big one.”

The size of a shed.

Freshwater stingrays are somewhat rare, so the reason why this one’s so big is really good news: she’s pregnant.

Telegraph:
Mr Welch and the team released the stingray, which turned out to be a pregnant female.

The giant freshwater stingray is listed as a vulnerable species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list.

Tags: marine biology, zoology