The Mekong River flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is home to several species of giant freshwater fish, but is subject to various environmental hazards.
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“Large fish around the world are endangered. They are highly valuable species. It takes a long time for them to mature. So if you fish them before they mature, they have no chance of reproducing,” Hogan said. “A lot of these big fish migrate, so they need large areas to survive.”
The American magazine noted that the scientists present at the site inserted a tagging device near the tail of the huge fish before releasing it back into the river. The device will send tracking information for next year, and will provide unprecedented data on the behavior of giant stingrays in Cambodia.
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“The giant stingray is a very incomprehensible fish. Its name, even its scientific name, has changed several times in the last 20 years,” Hogan explained the importance of the study. “It is found all over Southeast Asia, but we have almost no information about it. We do not know about its life history. We do not know about its ecology, about its migration patterns.”