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By SETH MYDANS
International Herald Tribune

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HAT KHRAI, Thailand--The monster fish announced itself with four huge blows of its tail, thrashing against the net that had trapped it in the Mekong River.
在泰國的HAT KHRAI---巨大的怪魚在幾經掙扎後，在曼谷的河中被捉到了。

It was a rare giant catfish, and it took five boatmen an hour to pull it in and 10 men to lift it when they reached the shore in this remote village in northern Thailand.
它是非常珍稀的巨大鯰魚，在泰國北部的偏遠村落，花了5個漁夫1個小時才拉上船，還有10個壯漢才把它抬上岸。

At 2.7 meters in length and weighing 293 kilograms, it may be the biggest freshwater fish ever recorded.
有2.7公尺長，重293公斤，它也許是有紀錄以來最大的淡水魚了。

But in one of the world's more surprising mysteries, nobody really knows which is the biggest species of fish lurking under the waters of the Mekong or the Amazon or the Yangtze or the Congo or the Colorado or Lake Baikal.
在許多令人驚奇的神祕中，沒有人確切地知道，那些隱藏在湄公河、亞馬遜河、長江、剛果河、或是貝加爾湖中，到底誰是最大的淡水魚。

When the giant catfish was caught in May, a biologist named Zeb S. Hogan rushed here to take a look. It was his first trophy in a project to identify and study the world's largest freshwater fish in the hope of slowing their extinction.
巨鯰在五月被捉時，一位名叫Zeb S. Hogan的生物學家趕到此地一探究竟。在一個研究世界最大淡水魚以減緩巨魚滅絕的計劃中，此巨鯰是第一隻珍寶。

Sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the World Wildlife Fund, Mr Hogan has embarked on an 18-month expedition that will take him to five continents.
在國際地理協會及世界野生動物基金會的贊助下，Hogan開始了五大洲18個月的探險。

He has started with the Mekong, which he said has seven species of giant fish, more than any other river, along with at least 750 other species. All of them are threatened--- likc river fish around the world---by overfishing, pollution and development, including major dam projects.
他決定由曼谷開始，此地至少有750個不同魚種，7個巨魚種，比起世界上其他河都多。但是它們都像其他的河流一樣，過度捕撈、污染、開發、水壩計劃，以致遭受到生存的威脅。

The Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) may be the first to disappear from the river, he said. The few that remain can be spotted now only in central Cambodia and here, just below the Golden Triangle, where northern Thailand Laos and Myanmar meet.
他說，湄公河巨鯰(學名Pangasianodon gigas)也許會是第一個從湄公河消失。巨鯰只能在位於金三角的下方、即柬埔寨與此地，泰國北方的寮國與緬甸交界處零星發現。

 

A rare giant catfish caught in the Mekong River may set a record for size, but the species is disappearing fast.
在湄公河所捕獲的巨鯰又創下新記錄，但此物種正快速消失中。

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No one has made a credible claim to top this year's trophy, Mr. Hogan said. "I keep expecting people to send me photos or records of larger fish, but nobody has, "Mr. Hogan said. "But that's kind of the point of the project. Let's gather all the information that's out there and decide which is the largest freshwater fish."
Hogan說沒有人知道今年捕獲多少巨魚，「我一直希望有人寄照片或是更巨大魚的資料給我，但是都沒有，但那是計劃的一部份，搜集資料以決定何者是世界最大的淡水魚。」

Mr.Hogan has his own personal candidater, the Chinese paddlefish in the Yangtze and the giant stingray here in the Mekong.
Hogan有自己的魚選了，長江的太空鱘和湄公河的巨魟。

"I saw a stingray in Cambodia in 2003 that was 4.13 meters long," he said. "That fish could have been it, but we couldn't weight it. It was too big."
我2003年在柬埔寨看過一隻4.13米長的魟魚。可能就是它了，可是它太大了，無法量多重。

 

When he began to spread the world in Cambodia that he was looking for giant fish, Mr Hogan said, it was the stingray he had in mind. "I thought I'd get 50 phone calls the first week, but nobody contacted us, he said. "So they're more rare than I thought they were."
當他決定到柬埔寨去尋找巨魚，「我本以為會接到50通的電話，結果一通都沒有」，Hogan 說它們遠比我認為的稀少多了。

The giant catfish in Thailand was one of just three caught there this year.
此巨鯰是今年所捕獲3隻中的一隻。

One of the men who caught it , Thirayuth Panthayom, 29, made sure luck would be on his side. He said he prayed at the shrine of the God of Catfish and begged his boat to help him, "Please, Miss Boat, let me catch something today and I'll sacrifice a chicken for you."
幸運之神一直站在捕獲巨鯰的29歲Thirayuth Panthayom這邊，他說他在鯰魚神廟中祈求，「請Miss Boat 今天讓我捉到些什麼吧，我會用雞作為祭品來祭拜您」

His father, as owner of the boat, earned nearly $2,000 for the fish from the village fishing association, a fortune in rural Thailand.
船主人是他的父親，此魚為他賺進了$2000，這在泰國鄉下算是一筆不少的財富。

Fishermen cut this one, which weighed 293 kilograms, into steak.
圖中漁民正在把293公斤的巨鯰切成一片一片。