A giant fish in Asia’s Mekong River that scientists believed to be extinct has been spotted three times after almost 20 years, according to a new study.
The “ghost’ fish,” a large salmon carp, is renowned as the symbol of the Mekong region, Chhut Chheana, a researcher at the Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute in Cambodia, said.
The predator can grow up to 4 feet long and has a streak of yellow around its eyes. The last recorded sighting had been in 2005 — until Chhut’s study detailing three other recordings of the fish was released on Tuesday.
The study, published in the journal Biological Conservation, documents three sightings of the fish between 2020 and 2023. The biologists working to track the fish relied on local fishing communities along the Mekong River to report any unusual sightings.
The fishing communities noted three sightings, two along the Mekong River and one at a separate creek in Cambodia. All three were found outside of their typical range.
The researchers purchased the fish, with the ones from the Mekong River measuring two to three feet long each.
“I’ve been looking for it since then, kind of fascinated by it because it’s a very unusual giant fish. I thought it was probably extinct, and so to hear that it had been found again – I’ve been waiting 20 years for that news,” Zeb Hogan, a fish biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno who was involved with the study, said in an interview with CNN.
“It’s a sign of hope. It means that it’s not too late.”
The biologists involved in the study said that they hope working with local communities in Laos and Thailand will enable them to confirm if the salmon carp still swims in other parts of the Mekong River.
The fish’s original disappearance, however, still spells greater concern for the future of other migratory species in the region, particularly those victim to industrial pollution and overfishing.
More than 700 dams are built along the river leaving limited “fish passages” to help species maneuver around blockages, said Brian Eyler, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Stimson Center in Washington. Eyler was not involved with the published research.
Encroaching on the river has pushed nearly a fifth of its fish to near-extinction, according to a report published by Conservation International in March.
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