Imagine bumping into this guy...

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KMG365

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
3,033
Location
Ontario, Canada
Two Thai fisherman caught this 293 kilogram catfish (about 645 pounds) in the Mekong River in the Chiang Khong district of Chiang Rai province, of northern Thailand in mid-May, 2005.

I had no idea that catfish could grow to this size! Catfish are bottom feeders and they probably pose little danger but, based on his size alone, I wouldn't want to meet him while out swimming! :D

BigFish.jpg
 
Big animals that live in bodies of water freak me out when I'm in it. I don't care if it's a dolphin.

I remember one time swimming in the ocean somewhere down south and I was wayyyy out to the rope barrier with my mum. I noticed a huge shadow under me but figured it was mine. But I moved over and it didn't...it paused...THEN moved.

As this was feeding into one of my greatest fears I started madly swimming for shore. :lol:

We think it was a manta ray or something but...still freaky!

That shot makes me think of Big Fish. :D The movie, heh.
 
I had a Manta Ray swim by me while I was in Mexico. I though it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen. Just as I realized what I had seen a snorkler spotted it and you could see bubbles coming out of her mouth cause she was screaming - I think she just about swallowed her snorkle . The look on her face was one of the funniest things I'd every seen so the Manta's visit was kind of a 2 for 1 special. :p
 
At first I was debating if it was even true. I am shocked at the size of that fish.

But it truly is sad that this fish is endangered.
Although unlike poachers or retail fishermen, the villagers were the ones to benefit from the meat. Still though, we are losing our precious animals and fish. :(
 
jorats said:
At first I was debating if it was even true. I am shocked at the size of that fish.
Click to expand...

I pulled the photo off the CTV news website so I was pretty confident that the photo was authentic. :D

The full caption for the photo reads:

Two Thai fishermen show a 293-kilogram giant catfish they caught from the Mekong River in Chiang Khong district of Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand in mid-May, 2005. Six proposed dams on the Mekong River could displace up to 75,000 villagers and harm hundreds of species like the endangered giant catfish, conservationists warned on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007.
 
jorats said:
But it truly is sad that this fish is endangered.
Although unlike poachers or retail fishermen, the villagers were the ones to benefit from the meat. Still though, we are losing our precious animals and fish. :(
Click to expand...

Nothing is going to be sadder than when we realize that there is only one thing that feeds less people than an endangered animal, and that is an extinct one.
 
That's true.
I did watch a program on Animal Planet once, They did say there's been animal extinction going on for a long time now some due to human interference and some not. They believe it might be part of evolution.
 
jorats said:
That's true.
I did watch a program on Animal Planet once, They did say there's been animal extinction going on for a long time now some due to human interference and some not. They believe it might be part of evolution.
Click to expand...

Yes, nature has always played an important role in extinction. On average four species a year go extinct with no human intervention at all. Typically they theorize that this natural extinction occurs due to the evolution of species. One species replacing another.
Since humans have become the dominant species on this planet, there have been very few creatures that have been allowed to evolve, with some scientists saying that none will ever be given the opportunity to evolve again - including humans. It all boils down to a sustainability issue. This planet just cannot sustain the amount of life that we have put on it over the last hundred years.
Imagine, tigers have been evolving into the absolute perfect creatures they are today, and that evolution has taken 50 million years. There are less than 8,000 left in the wild today, with two per day being poached. At least three subspecies have gone extinct in the last decade. Nature has nothing to do with that, as with most species. With tigers, we are looking at the end of the line of what has taken 50 million years to acheive.
I try not to do much research into this stuff, it makes me very depressed. I shouldn't have even looked at this post, especially since the whole Sea Shepherd thing with Migaloo. :)
 
Bronwyn said:
I imagine the shadow it would have created in the water and shudder. :lol:
Click to expand...

For Serious! :shock:

My big fear, which is totally unfounded. :roll: Is Sea Lions. I am really and truly afraid of Sea Lions. While in Seward on time I was walking the boat docks and checking out the sailboats and one huge male sea lion popped his head up out of the silty water and looked at me with his shiny round human-esk head just peeking out of the water, and his huge perfectly black alien eyes staring at me, and just under the water I saw his mouth open and all the shiny white teeth a perfectly pointy like daggers. Completely silent, just stared at me. And I realized that I was one eighth his size... and conveniently made out of meat. I could have peed myself I was so scared. He was only a few feet away, right at my toes at the edge of the floating dock.
nightmare.jpg



Nightmares. Forever. :cry:
 
KMG365 said:
jorats said:
At first I was debating if it was even true. I am shocked at the size of that fish.
Click to expand...

I pulled the photo off the CTV news website so I was pretty confident that the photo was authentic. :D

The full caption for the photo reads:

Two Thai fishermen show a 293-kilogram giant catfish they caught from the Mekong River in Chiang Khong district of Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand in mid-May, 2005. Six proposed dams on the Mekong River could displace up to 75,000 villagers and harm hundreds of species like the endangered giant catfish, conservationists warned on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007.
Click to expand...

I saw the Animal Planet special on the Mekong River. There are bigger things than that Catfish in there. Kinda scary.
 
Tara said:
My big fear, which is totally unfounded. :roll: Is Sea Lions. I am really and truly afraid of Sea Lions.
Click to expand...

Whenever I think of sea lions, I still imagine them as the playful creatures that balance balls on their noses at Sea World. :D

I'm afraid of snapping turtles. I was swimming in a lake in Algonquin park many years ago and I noticed a large turtle in the water several feet away. I had a swimming mask with me so I could see underwater and I thought it would be fun to follow the turtle around. Apparently, the turtle wasn't so enthusiastic.

After a couple minutes tailing the thing, I lost sight of it. For some reason, I decided to look down in the water right beneath me and there it was! It was coming up from the bottom toward me and I could see it snapping it's beak.

Needless to say, I panicked! I swam out of the area as fast as I could - with all appendages intact. Today, I leave snapping turtles alone.

On that same trip, I learned that a moose can walk through the water faster than I can paddle a boat, but that's another story! :D
 
Oh, yes.... moose are definitly another story. They can also walk through snow faster than we can run through it.

But seriously, look up some info on the Steller Sea Lions of Alaska.... they aren't the same seals as the cute little ones they have in California. Much bigger, and aggressive. The males are 1400 to 1600 lbs on average, and they are soooooo scary........ eeeeeep. :cry3:
 

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