A group of Nakhon Panom locals are currently enjoying the supposed good luck brought by eating the meat of a massive Mekong stingray.
The three-meter-wide, 200kg giant fish was instantly chopped up and sold for THB100 per kilogram after being hauled out of the mighty river recently. It was the biggest fish caught in the province in 50 years.
Fishing authorities said that the Mekong freshwater stringray (Dasyatis laosensis) normally lives in very deep water and that a change in the river’s water level might have caused it to lose its way.
Authorities told the local fishermen that they would buy the next giant stingray they catch whole, and release it back in the wild rather than have it butchered, ThaiRath reported.
The Mekong stingray is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to overfishing and habitat encroachment.
