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Megafishes Project to Size Up "Real-Life Loch Ness Monsters"

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Jill Elvgren
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« on: July 27, 2007, 12:14:04 am »

Megafishes Project to Size Up "Real-Life Loch Ness Monsters"
Stefan Lovgren in Sandouping, China
for National Geographic News


July 24, 2007
This is the first in a continuing series on the Megafishes Project. Join National Geographic News on the trail with project leader Zeb Hogan as he tracks down the world's largest freshwater fishes.

A thick, polluting haze envelops the Three Gorges Dam, blurring the view of the world's largest hydroelectric station.




Biologist Zeb Hogan holds a taimen, a giant member of the salmon family, while searching for megafishes in Asia.

Hogan is leader of the newly launched Megafishes Project, the first effort to document, study, and protect freshwater fish 6.5 feet (2 meters) or longer in length or more than 220 pounds (100 kilograms) in weight.

Photograph by Brant Allen

Photos: Giant Catfish May Be World's Largest Freshwater Fish (June 29, 2005)
Giant Catfish Protected From Fishing in Thailand (July 10, 2006)
Mekong Giant Catfish: Photos, Fast Facts, More

But for Zeb Hogan, a fisheries biologist with the University of Reno, in Nevada, seeing the 1.5-mile-wide (2.5-kilometer-wide) dam from the banks of the Yangtze River brings into sharp focus the threats facing the animals he has set out to study: the world's largest freshwater fishes.

"From the point of view of the fish, there's nothing worse than a dam," he said.

"Dams block upstream migration, destroy spawning habitat, and can turn large stretches of river into ecological wastelands."

Earlier this year Hogan launched the Megafishes Project, a three-year effort funded by the National Geographic Society to document the 20-some species of giant fish found around the world. (National Geographic News is owned by the National Geographic Society.)

Megafishes live in rivers and lakes and grow to at least 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length or 220 pounds (100 kilograms) in weight.

Hogan calls the giant fish "the real-life Loch Ness monsters and Bigfoots of the aquatic world." (See photos of the "monster" fishes.)

Hogan's mission has brought him to the Yangtze River, home to the Chinese sturgeon and Chinese paddlefish—ancient leviathans that were once plentiful in the world's third-longest river but are now on the brink of extinction (see China map).

The Chinese paddlefish, which can grow to be 23 feet (7 meters) long and weigh 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms), may be the largest freshwater fish in the world.

But no one has seen one in the Yangtze since 2003.

"Everywhere around the world these large fish are in big trouble," said Hogan, who is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/80860228.html
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Jill Elvgren
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« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2007, 12:15:39 am »



Name: Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas)

Maximum Size: 118 inches (300 centimeters), 661.4 pounds (300 kilograms)

Habitat: Mekong River Basin, Southeast Asia

Endangered Status on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List (2006): Critically endangered

Population Size: Unknown; only one was captured in 2006, according to Megafishes Project leader Zeb Hogan

Major Threats: Overfishing and habitat loss

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« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2007, 12:16:57 am »



Name: Mississippi paddlefish (Polyodon spathula)

Maximum Size: 87 inches (221 centimeters) including paddle

Habitat: Mississippi River Basin, North America

Endangered Status on IUCN Red List (2006): Vulnerable

Population Size: Estimated at 1,353, based on a 2001 study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey

Major Threats: Overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution
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« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2007, 12:18:45 am »



Name: Wels catfish (Silurus glanis)

Maximum Size: 197 inches (500 centimeters), 675 pounds (306 kilograms)

Habitat: Widespread in Europe and Asia

Endangered Status on IUCN Red List (2006): Least concern

Population Size: Unknown

Major Threats: N/A
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« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2007, 12:20:19 am »



Name: Alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula)

Maximum Size: 120 inches (305 centimeters), 300 pounds (136 kilograms)

Habitat: Mississippi River Basin, North America

Endangered Status on IUCN Red List (2006): Not evaluated

Population Size: Unknown

Major Threats: Unknown
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« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2007, 12:21:20 am »



Name: Nile perch (Lates niloticus)

Maximum Size: 79 inches (200 centimeters), 441 pounds (200 kilograms)

Habitat: Nile River Basin, Africa

Endangered Status on IUCN Red List (2006): Not evaluated

Population Size: Unknown but rapidly declining. Total amount fished fell from 1.29 million tons in 2001 to 820,000 tons in 2006, according to a National Geographic News report

Major Threats: Overfishing
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« Reply #6 on: July 27, 2007, 12:22:28 am »



Name: Giant freshwater stingray (Himantura chaophraya)

Maximum Size: 197 inches (500 centimeters), 1,323 pounds (600 kilograms), body diameter 95 inches (240 centimeters)

Habitat: Mekong River Basin, Southeast Asia

Endangered Status on IUCN Red List (2006): Vulnerable

Population Size: Unknown

Major Threats: Overfishing and pollution

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« Reply #7 on: July 27, 2007, 12:23:59 am »



Name: Arapaima (Arapaima gigas)

Maximum Size: 177 inches (450 centimeters), 441 pounds (200 kilograms)

Habitat: Amazon River Basin, South America

Endangered Status on IUCN Red List (2006): Data deficient

Population Size: Approximately 150,000, based on a 2004 study published in the journal Animal Conservation

Major Threats: Overfishing
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« Reply #8 on: July 27, 2007, 12:25:38 am »



Name: Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii peelii)

Maximum Size: 79 inches (200 centimeters), 250 pounds (113.5 kilograms)

Habitat: Murray River Basin, Australia

Endangered Status on IUCN Red List (2006): Endangered

Population Size: Unknown

Major Threats: Overfishing and habitat loss
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« Reply #9 on: July 27, 2007, 12:29:04 am »



RELATED STORIES
Megafishes Project to Size Up ''Real-Life Loch Ness Monsters''
Photo Gallery: Mekong Giant Catfish
Giant Catfish Critically Endangered, Group Says (November 18, 2003)
Name: Giant barb (Catlocarpio siamensis)

Maximum Size: 118 inches (300 centimeters), 661.5 pounds (300 kilograms)

Habitat: Mekong River Basin, Southeast Asia

Endangered Status on IUCN Red List (2006): Not evaluated

Population Size: Unknown; only ten caught in 2000, according to the Mekong River Commission

Major Threats: Overfishing and habitat loss

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Stacy Dohm
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« Reply #10 on: July 27, 2007, 08:29:03 pm »

Nice pix!
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"All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream." - Edgar Allen Poe
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