In this photo released by World Wildlife Fund-National Geographic, two Thai fishermen show a 293-kilogram (646-pound) giant catfish they caught from the Mekong River in Chiang Khong district of Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand Saturday, June 11, 2005. Thai fishermen have caught this giant catfish believed to be the world's heaviest living freshwater fish but died and was eaten after environmentalists and officials negotiated for its release to allow it to spawn.

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(Bangkok) This big one did not get away. Thai fishermen netted a 646-pound catfish believed to have been the world's largest freshwater fish ever caught in Thailand, a researcher said Thursday.

The nearly 9-foot-long Mekong giant catfish was landed May 1 by villagers in Chiang Khong, a remote district in northern Thailand, and weighed by Thai fisheries department officials, said Zeb Hogan, who leads an international project to locate and study the world's largest freshwater fish species.

He confirmed it was the heaviest fish on record since Thailand started keeping such statistics in 1981.

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[ 04 July 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

What did it eat to get that big?
WHO did it eat to get that big?

Do they have any idea how old it might be?

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Originally posted by anne cameron:
WHO did it eat to get that big?

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Thai fishermen have caught this giant catfish believed to be the world's heaviest living freshwater fish but died and was eaten after environmentalists and officials negotiated for its release to allow it to spawn.

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