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VietNamNet Bridge - On January 15, a restaurant in District 7 in HCM City, bought a giant grouper weighing up to 160 kilos from fishermen in the central province of Khanh Hoa.
The giant grouper.
Reportedly, this was the biggest-ever giant grouper caught in Vietnam.
The giant fish of more than 2 meters long was transported from Khanh Hoa to HCM City on a refrigerator truck on the same day.
The restaurant did not reveal the price of the fish.
The biggest giant grouper recorded in the world was in 1961, with a weight of up to 209kg. It was caught in Fernandina, Florida in the US.
The giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus) is the largest bony fish found in coral reefs. It is found from near the surface to depths of 100 m at reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific region, with the exception of the Persian Gulf. It reaches up to 2.7 m in length and 400 kg in weight.
The 130kg giant barb.
Giant groupers feed on a variety of marine life, including small sharks and juvenile sea turtles. Due to overfishing, this species has declined drastically in many regions, and since the mid-1990s, it has been considered vulnerable by the IUCN.
A few days ago, on January 12, a restaurant in District 3 in HCM City bought a red giant barb (Catlocarpio siamensis) from a trader in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang.
The fish weighed up to 130kg and was 1.5m long. It was caught by fishermen working on the Mekong River.
The restaurant did not disclose the amount they paid for the giant fish but based on the market price, the fish was estimated to cost about VND500 million ($25,000).
Giant barbs live in the Mekong River and follow the river through Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The whale.
In Vietnam, they are found in the Tien and Hau rivers, two affluents of the Mekong River, and some of them may grow as big as 300 kilograms. Big mature fish have become rare today as they are sought by fishermen.
In the last few years, Vietnamese fishermen have caught giant barbs weighing 100kg-200kg and all of them were sold to restaurants in HCM City.
In related news, on January 18, fishermen in Bach Long commune, Giao Thuy district, Nam Dinh province rescued a whale five meters long weighing more than three tons. It had been stuck on a local beach.
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Nam Dinh official denies whale killing
Photos showing people butchering the dead whale caused outrage online.
An official from Nam Dinh Province has defended the decision to allow local people to butcher the corpse of a whale that died in the province. The five-metre long whale was found on the beach of Bach Long Commune on the morning of January 18. Local people helped return the whale to the sea successfully. However, internet users expressed their anger when photos appeared on Facebook in the same afternoon, showing people cutting up the whale and sharing the meat.
People butchering the dead whale.
Nguyen Van Hoa, an official from Hai Dong Commune's agriculture department said when they found the whale in the morning it had bite marks on the belly and tail. He claimed local people did return the whale to the sea, but it could not survive and was washed ashore again. "Many people want to take the meat to feed their livestock and we agreed so the decomposing body would not cause pollution," Hoa said. The organs and bones were buried. He went on to say that another dead whale had been washed ashore before. They buried it under the sand and after awhile, the sand was blown and washed away, exposing the rotting body. - Dantri |
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Giant fish species of the Mekong River in pictures |
Thu Ly
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