Hunting of giant catfish in the Mekong River Stops

Sixty-eight families in Chiang Rai’s Chiang Khong (เชียงของ) district have signed an agreement with conservation groups to stop hunting giant catfish which is now deemed endangered species.

They gave their pledges to mark the 60th anniversary of His Majesty the King’s ascension to the throne.

The families would be paid 1.36 million baht altogether as compensation from the Fisheries Department, World Wildlife Fund and the Mekong Wetlands Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use Programme.

Under the agreement, these families will no longer catch giant catfish, found only in the Mekong River, for consumption and commercial purposes.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 21 June 2006

This is good news, however it may not stop the illegal fishing of the monsters. I was there a few years ago drinking lao khao with the fishermen who caught one of the fish. The fisheries dept had a close watch on them and tried to milk them for sperm and get eggs from the female caught. An interesting sight. Although the sale of the fish was supposed to be transparent, two disappeared in the middle of the night. The men who caught them celebrated pretty heavily the following day, but would not answer questions as to where the fish had gone.

Unfortunately, the manner in which they keep the fish alive is quite harsh, tying their tails and fins to a bamboo pole and keeping them in shallow water, up-side down to allow the current to flow over them as they lay there fighting to get free.

Let's hope the population can resurge.

CRG

Coming from Chiang Rai (road 1174) you reach the road between Thoeng and Chiang Khong (road 1020) about seven kilometers south of Chiang Khong in the village Thung Ngiu.

About hundred meters from this T-crossing at the left side there is a simple wooden stall at the road (at least it was last Monday) where they sell plabuk, already handily cut in big slices.

They are really big, these fishes. One was only cut half and I guess the remaining half had a diameter of about sixty centimeters.

Are you sure it is illegal? I asked a Thai resident of Chiang Khong and she said that it only was illegal sometimes and somewhere and that some plabuk made the exception of the rule.

But maybe I didn't understand her very well.

Limbo

It is true that they milk the female for eggs, after they catch a female they officialy have to wait untill they catch a male to furtelize the eggs, before they can get them out of the water.

A few years ago when i was one of the "choosen" ones to live in Chiang Khong i withnessed this natural disaster.

They did bread a lot of small pla buek fish in the little ponds next to the river, and it was nice to see that after a few mounths a high official came to release them in to the Mae Kong, press and television was there, and every body was happy except for a few critics offcourse.

The sad thing was that three days later most of the released baby fish where for sale on the local market, after beeing recaught by the local fisherman.

As i am told: officially the Mekong river belongs to Laos, and therefor the Thai are only allowed fishing the first 50 meters of the river (no tayto, sideways) thats why the Mekong fish in Thailand comes from Laos, and is so expensive.