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November 26, 2009

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UNR researcher disputes weight of massive stingray catch

By Charlotte Hsu (contact)

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 | 12:35 p.m.

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UNR

A University of Nevada, Reno researcher says this giant stingray, which news reports said weighed 771 pounds, has never been weighed.

A University of Nevada, Reno researcher is setting the record straight on a giant stingray caught in Thailand in late January.

News reports touted the stingray as a 771-pound behemoth, the largest freshwater rod-caught fish. But UNR conservation biologist Zeb Hogan, whose team of researchers and anglers was present when the stingray was trapped, says the animal was never weighed, according to a press release the university issued today.

Hogan, lead researcher for the "Megafishes Project," a joint venture with the National Geographic Society to study and protect the world's largest freshwater fish, estimates the stingray's weight at between 550-770 pounds.

“In terms of disk width, this is the second-largest stingray I’ve seen, the largest was in Cambodia in 2003,” Hogan said, according to the press release. “This recent fish was very thick, so it may have weighed more.”

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