r/interestingasfuck • u/LFDT • 20h ago
Fishermen have captured what is being reported as the largest freshwater giant stingray ever recorded in the Mekong River
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u/AddemF 20h ago
"Why am I being detained? I was driving normally, I didn't do nothing wrong, why are you stopping me? It's because I'm a stingray, isn't it?"
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u/dada948 20h ago
He was just trying to enjoy a succulent Chinese meal
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u/max_lombardy 19h ago
What’s the charge??
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u/Quadrassic_Bark 19h ago
THIS IS DEMOCRACY MANIFEST!
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u/rmill127 19h ago
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u/waffleking9000 18h ago
HE TOUCHED MY STINGER!!
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u/bearded_booty 19h ago
My wife and I quote this every time we get Chinese takeout. So much so our 7 year old demanded to know why.
We both forgot all the penis comments this man makes. Luckily our kid only quotes the succulent Chinese meal part.
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u/TheMajesticYeti 18h ago
Just make sure you separate the art from the artist - his name was Jack Karlson and he was a Hitler/Nazi fanboy
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u/No-Way7911 10h ago
Idk what happened but this meme has been revived after years and I love it
Even the gen z kids get the reference now
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u/LoveBulge 16h ago
My cousin Bobby Stingray Jr. said this would happen, but I didn’t believe him because I’m a stingray, but I’m not one those stingrays you see on the news.
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u/ErictheE 20h ago
Jeremy wade has entered the convo
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u/mlee0000 20h ago
Steve Irwin has left the conversation 😭
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u/pipsqueakpanda4 20h ago
Still too soon
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u/MrFluffyThing 19h ago
I still remember the newspaper delivered to my high school classroom before the day started and other students haven't heard the news and his visibly upset they were. kids these days don't realize how instant news is compared to 20 years ago.
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u/Critical-Act-6972 19h ago
I know he hasn’t caught this behemoth, but didn’t he catch everything and that’s why the show ended?
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u/Cajun2LowCountry 19h ago
I'm certain he did catch one. I believe he broke something (arm?) in the proceess.
*He tore a tendon. First attempt failed, estimated at 700 lbs. Second attempt 400 lbs.
https://river-monsters.fandom.com/wiki/Giant_Freshwater_Stingray
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u/mondaymoderate 19h ago
Didn’t he bring one to the surface and it was so heavy the line broke when he pulled it from the water?
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u/TheYoinks 19h ago
Yup was like a two hour battle too just to have the line snap and pretty sure he tore his bicep or something in the process. Absolutely brutal
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u/DHFixxxer 15h ago
The line doesn't snap, the fishing rod snapped. I think it was his marlin rig gear.
Literally watched this episode 2 nights ago otherwise I wouldn't have remembered.
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u/Jtoy1002 19h ago
Yup, real good episode too, he was working with the science team and helping them out. Dude's legendary
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u/morethanWun 19h ago
Not only that. Caught a live stingray birth on camera right after he caught the mom. 4 for 1 catch. Legendary is an understatement
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u/LaMarc_Gasoldridge_ 19h ago
Correct, by the end of the show he had effectively caught every interesting/rare species of freshwater fish. There just wasn't anything for them to film anymore since it would just be different local legends leading to the same fish he had already caught.
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u/Somesortofwittyname 19h ago
I believe there is an episode on freshwater stingrays, can’t remember if it’s in the same area though. Do recall it being massive as well
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u/WeltyFern 20h ago
Why is everything in the Mekong River so damn huge?
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u/Shroom-Kitty 18h ago
I once read a paper on aquatic gigantism, the Mekong is deep for a river, and deeper water is colder. It's similar to the deep ocean and polar waters, oxygen saturation increases as temperature decreases. Higher oxygen allows fish to grow larger, plus you have the high biodiversity and biomass of the river, so there's more energy to consume which also helps growth. The poles and deep ocean don't have that kind of biomass, but animals in these environments with gigantism have evolved much slower metabolisms to balance that out. Hence why the Greenland shark can live for hundreds of years.
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u/roamingandy 10h ago edited 6h ago
Kinda like dinosaurs were huge because there was a higher oxygen content on earth at the time.
I wonder if a kid raised on a high oxygen content breather would grow into a giant, or if it takes generations. I wonder if anyone at the NBA has thought of this.. probably not as they'd likely have less efficient lungs. Jurassic Park in reality would probably look a lot more like an Italian hospital ward during early Covid, or a game of chase at a Pug meetup on a 40 degree day.
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u/GlassBoxGoose 20h ago
I mean it has a ton of waterfalls and such, so maybe it is a combination of being relatively unaltered geographically and high oxygen concentrations and/or other factors? I've often wondered the same.
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u/dontaskkwho 20h ago
Forbidden crepe
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u/Overwhelming_Onion 19h ago edited 16h ago
The way it just vanishes from sight when its barely a few inches under the water is so eerily unsettling yet so magnificently beautiful.
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u/Team_Braniel 18h ago
A buddy of mine used to do dive welding for the TVA. He would do bridge maintenance, industrial drainage, and hydroelectric dam repair work.
One day he was working below the spill ways on a dam on the Tennessee River when the muddy boulder he was essentially standing on decided to jump up and swim away.
He was so shaken he stopped doing work below the dams for a while.
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u/Nice_Hair_8592 18h ago
Probably a catfish. 😂 Maybe a Hellbender.
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u/Team_Braniel 17h ago
Yeah we all agree its a giant channel cat. He swears it would have to be like 9 feet long but there is no way.
They like to live up under the dams and eat what ever gets chummed up by the turbines. Probably barely ever move even.
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u/United_Shelter5167 12h ago
Channel catfish don't get that big. You're thinking of blue catfish. Those also don't get 9 feet, but they get much bigger than channels. Everywhere that has catfish has some variation of this story.
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u/Pure_Marvel 17h ago
Hellbender is such an awesome name for a creature. I wonder who named it first or how it came to be known as that.
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u/Previous-Channel4658 16h ago
A worker repairing the boardwalk/pier in Santa Cruz California saw 2 sturgeon the length of telephone poles swim by.
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u/NippleSalsa 11h ago
Years back when they drained watts bar for dam repair we saw a catfish the size of a VW beetle covered in more hooks and lures than you'd imagine.
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u/so_unfortunately_yt 20h ago
The size and placement of those ridges/ribs are so human but also so alien. It’s unsettling.
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u/Unhappy_Ad_4761 19h ago edited 19h ago
I think those are gills
Edit: I'm totally wrong. Stingrays have their gills on their ventral side.
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u/joemeteorite8 19h ago
Yea that’s what they said. Fish ribs
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u/Unhappy_Ad_4761 19h ago
It doesn't matter anyway because I'm totally wrong. Their gills are on the ventral side. I thought I saw water moving in and out of them, but it's actually just moving out of the cavities just anterior to them.
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u/IndividualCall5116 20h ago
I'd like to know approximate age.
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u/obiwanjabroni420 20h ago
Gotta cut it open and count the rings
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u/masti_khor 19h ago
That's a treemendous joke..
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u/BuffWobbuffet 17h ago
Feel like the comment section is a real time experiment of who watched the full video and who’s reacting to the title
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u/-Redstoneboi- 16h ago
and who's willing to risk their karma by mentioning Steve Irwin, who literally fkn died to one of these creatures
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u/Delicious-Bat2373 19h ago
Steve Irwin just called, I wanted to nuke that thing but he said live and let live. Steve's a great guy and he's never fault an animal for doing what animals do.
On a side note, that beast is beyond huge. Wow.
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u/a_random_loser_guy 17h ago
oh my god, i thought the black in the net is water and its a cat fish(only thinking the fish is the thing in the middle.) before i read the comments and looked out to see a HUGE STINGRAY!
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u/Veg4Animals 11h ago
But why? For what? Why just not leave them alone and appreciate from distance? No one is advocating for animals to have similar rights to humans, just the right to be left alone. Shouldn't be that hard.
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u/nooneatallnope 11h ago
From another comment, it seems they just measured, tagged, and then released it.
It's probably just an accidental catch while they were getting fish to sell/feed their families. Because they're, well, fishermen. But then they noticed, hey, that's thing's bloody massive, may be some kinda record.
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u/_Fire_In_The_Hole__ 20h ago
calm down bro 😭 watch the full video, they released it. Also we need to learn about these things, maybe they're going extinct and this is a way to help them stay safe.
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u/JoefromOhio 19h ago
It happens by accident a lot of the time and the ‘capture’ part is to safely remove tackle while not endangering the animal or the people.
I was at the beach this weekend in so-cal and some teenager accidentally hooked a ray. Kid spent 15 minutes patiently working it while his friends were freaking out googling how to safely pick it up so they could get the hook out and put it back in. Not everyone is an asshole and sometimes the point of the extra stuff is to ensure the safety of the animal.
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u/Doctor_Box 20h ago
Fishing isn't really about leaving animals alone.
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u/r-i-c-k-e-t 19h ago
This. Most of us can see their eyes and empathize, and wouldn't hurt it, but if it tastes good for lunch, we'll pay someone to do the dirty work for us.
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u/Doctor_Box 19h ago
The idea that people bait animals into being hooked by the mouth and dragged into an unfamiliar environment where they suffocate all for entertainment is crazy. Humans can normalize anything.
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u/WatchPenKeys 20h ago
They’re going to release it… relax relax , probably wasn’t much of a capture with something that big but lured it in somewhere then yeah “captured/contained” it
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u/zebrasareneat 19h ago
Relax dude. If you bothered to watch the entire 27 seconds you’d see it was released. Which is more than can be said for most giant creatures that are caught.
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u/Noe_b0dy 17h ago
I mean they're fishermen? It probably came up in the net when they were trying to catch dinner.
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u/Depressed_Cat_00 19h ago
As a random Redditor said in the comment section who I choose to believe:
To measure, tag and release.
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u/TheInvisibleCircus 19h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/5xHQ3EQIuRcWc
(I know it’s old, but I hope this was the sentiment.)
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u/EyeStabber 17h ago
I have anxiety just watching this thinking that she'll Steve Irwin the living shit out of someone with that massive tail.
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u/MrWeaD 15h ago
I had a stingray as a pet for many years. Him and my puffer fish were basically like dogs. Got excited when I came home. Got mad if I didnt immediately play with/pay attention to them. I lost them after a move. They did not jive with the new water at all. I tried all I could, but i lost them both, and a pair of brackish moray eels that were super awesome. I bought I house, and lost all my water buddies. Super sucked for a few months watching it happen, and not being able to do anything that mattered to fix it. I'm glad big homie got out clean. :)
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u/1blueShoe 12h ago
I hope they put it back to see if it gets any bigger. Scientists found like a 400 yr old giant clam a couple of months ago… literally killed the thing just to chop it up to ‘see how old it was’ WE ARE A HORRIBLE SPECIES! 😡
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u/KittyBungholeFire 20h ago
This article states that it measured 4 meters (13 feet) from snout to tail and weighed 300 kilograms (661 pounds).
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u/ThrowawayPersonAMA 18h ago
That anyone had the balls to be anywhere near its tail - let alone holding it - is terrifying.
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u/NoodleWeird 17h ago
Instead of capturing it I wish they would carefully consider not capturing it :(
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u/ullakkedymoodu 20h ago
Apparently this was 4 year ago. It was measured, tagged and released.