The “Mekong ghost” fish is a ghost no extra.
Just like the legendary Rip Van Winkle, who wandered into the woods and disappeared for 20 years, the enormous salmon carp (Aaptosyax grypus) of Southeast Asia’s Mekong River additionally appeared to fade into the depths of fable. The megafish had not been documented since 2005, main many to imagine the species had quietly slipped into extinction.
However scientists have now confirmed the invention of three people, caught from 2020 to 2023 in Cambodian waters. The finds reignite hope for the enormous salmon carp’s survival, fish ecologist Bunyeth Chan and colleagues report within the November Organic Conservation.
Of their seek for the elusive species, the researchers had labored carefully with fishing communities, spreading the phrase that they had been searching for “pa sanak,” the native title for the carp. In 2020, a fisherman contacted the Cambodian Fisheries Administration about an uncommon catch. However with solely pictures of the fish, scientists couldn’t definitively affirm its id.
Then, in 2022 and 2023, scientists bought their fingers on two extra specimens caught by fishermen, and confirmed they’d seen a ghost. “I used to be extraordinarily shocked and excited to see the existence of Aaptosyax within the Mekong after its disappearance for thus lengthy,” says Chan, of Svay Rieng College in Cambodia.
The large salmon carp, with its distinctive hooked jaw and salmonlike physique, can develop as much as 1.3 meters lengthy and weigh over 30 kilograms. Its habitat, the Mekong River, is house to extra megafish than some other river, together with the Mekong large catfish and large freshwater stingray.
Nevertheless, the way forward for these river giants stays unsure. Many megafish, together with the enormous salmon carp, are migratory species that depend on seasonal actions to feed and spawn. However dams constructed all through the Mekong system have disrupted these migrations. Overfishing and local weather change additional threaten their survival.
The truth that the three newfound large salmon carp had been found exterior what was suspected to be their historic vary suggests the species could also be extra widespread than beforehand thought. Cambodia has now formally added the enormous salmon carp to its record of protected species. And researchers hope the rediscovery may even spark renewed efforts to safeguard the Mekong’s fragile ecosystem.
“This discovery,” says research coauthor Zeb Hogan, a fish biologist on the College of Nevada, Reno, who leads the USAID-funded Wonders of the Mekong mission, “is not only about saving the salmon carp, however about defending one of many biggest biodiversity sizzling spots on Earth.”
