Wow, this is creepy. And the barbed, poisonous tail is *ten* feet long? Wow. What's scarier though, is that this isn't the largest stingray ever caught, just the largest caught in this manner. I've read accounts of captures of the beasties easily exceeding 1,000 pounds!
And perhaps even scarier: i read another article which mentions that this stingray, at 770 pounds, is bigger than the largest catfish caught by a good 125 pounds. So there are 650 pound mean-as-heck catfish swimming around out there? Yipes! ****************************************************************** Last Updated: 6:51PM GMT 24 Feb 2009 Ian Welch Stingray:British biologist catches 55 stone, record-breaking stingray Fisherman Ian Welch has landed the largest ever freshwater fish during a trip to Thailand Photo: BNPS Ian Welch spent 90 minutes tussling with the giant stingray and it took 13 grown men to heave it out of the water. This fish measured 7ft long and 7ft wide, while its long sting measured 10ft. It has smashed the previous record of 46 stone for a huge catfish caught in 2005. Mr Welch, a freshwater biologist, had been visiting Thailand to help with a stingray tagging programme when he landed the fish on the Maeklong River. The 45-year-old said he was nearly pulled over the side of the fishing boat when the specimen took his bait. He said: "It dragged me across the boat and would have pulled me in had my colleague not grabbed my trousers - it was like the whole earth had just moved. I knew it was going to a big one. "It buried itself on the bottom and the main fight was trying to get it off the floor. "I tried with every ounce of power but it just would not budge. After half an hour my arms began shaking and after an hour my legs went. "Another 30 minutes went by and then I put a glove on and physically pulled the line with gritted teeth and somehow I found the reserves to shift the fish." Once the stingray was off the bottom Mr Welch, from Aldershot, Hants, managed to lift it 30ft to the surface. He said: "As soon as we saw it there was just silence because everyone was just in awe of this thing. "That line from the film Jaws came to mind about needing a bigger boat because we had to get it to the shore to tag it." The group managed to put a 12ft wide net under the fish and towed it to the bank. Mr Welch and the team released the stingray, which turned out to be a pregnant female. The giant freshwater stingray is listed as a vulnerable species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list. Although its numbers are unknown, experts believe the population has dwindled by 20 per cent over the last 10 years, making the possibility of extinction extremely high.
