The world's largest freshwater stingray

During the expedition with National Geographic, scientists caught the world's largest stingray.

The fish was tagged and released in central Thailand on January 28 during an expedition to find and protect the world's largest freshwater fish species.

The picture sparked rumors that the fish weighed 771 pounds . In fact, stingray has a large weight, but the exact weight of this fish is not determined.

Conservationist Zeb Hogan of Nevada University, Reno said: 'While the photo shows the truth, it is undeniable that it is a giant stingray, but the fish has never been weighted ' . Hogan is also the principal researcher in the expedition.

Giant freshwater stingrays are among the 200 largest stingray species . They appear in many rivers in southeast Asia and northern Australia.

The fish caught by Ian Welch sitting on a small boat using fishing rods and coils. It will be published in detail in the upcoming document of National Geographic channel. Hogan, along with a team of researchers and fishermen present at the time of catching the fish, estimated it weighed between 550 and 770 pounds . The fish is a little bigger than the catch fish will surely be the world's freshwater fish record holder .

The stingray monster was captured by Zeb Hogan's team while conducting a tagging test for freshwater fishes in southeast Asia. (Photo: University of Nevada, Reno)

Hogan said: 'It's the second largest stingray I've ever seen. The biggest one I saw was in Cambodia in 2003. This newer one has a thick body, so it might be heavier. '

'This giant freshwater stingray is probably the largest freshwater fish in the world'. The current record species is the giant catfish species on the 646 pound Mekong River caught by northern Thai fishermen in 2005.

After the first capture, the researchers again met this stingray where 4 kilometers away from where it was originally captured.

Hogan said: 'It's amazing that we caught it 4 weeks later, on February 28'.

This may mean that the population of stingrays is smaller in number, or less migratory than we think.

Biologists continue to monitor fish movements, using specialized underwater listening devices to detect tracked fish.

Hogan and his research team tagged 18 of Himantura chaophraya stingrays when they conducted a recently published research project on Thailand's stingray for Nevada University, Nero. , Thai Ministry of Fisheries, Fishiam Company, which sells sports fishing services and Natural Geographic Association, is funded by the Megafishes Project. This species is listed as an endangered species by the International Association for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).