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When scientists heard reports that a large, mysterious fish had been caught in Cambodia in 2020, excitement stirred. Could this be the "Mekong Ghost," they asked – an elusive fish that hadn't been seen since 2005 and was feared extinct?
Photos of the fish and its telltale identifiers – an odd-shaped mouth and a protruding knob at its jaw – seemed to confirm it.
But the fish, which can grow as large as 66 pounds, was sold before scientists could get a closer look. It didn't "feel like definitive proof," said Zeb Hogan, a research biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, and head of the US government-funded Wonders of the Mekong project, an initiative to study and conserve one of the most biodiverse rivers in the world.
Three years later, they struck gold. The researchers published their findings on Tuesday in a study in the Biological Conservation journal.
The team works to protect the Mekong, one of the world's longest rivers and a lifeline to tens of millions of people. It winds through multiple Southeast Asian countries and is extremely rich in biodiversity, but also faces various challenges including hydropower development, overfishing and habitat degradation.
These challenges are why scientists have long worried that the critically endangered giant salmon carp, which can measure up to four feet long, could have been quietly wiped out as years passed without a sighting.
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📸: Chhut Chheana/Wonders of the Mekong
