Fishermen in northern Thailand have netted a fish as big as a grizzly bear, a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish, the heaviest recorded since Thai officials started keeping records in 1981. The behemoth was caught in the Mekong River and may be the largest freshwater fish ever found.
"It's amazing to think that giants like this still swim in some of the world's rivers," said Dr. Zeb Hogan, a WWF Conservation Science fellow and leader of a new World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and National Geographic Society project to identify and study all freshwater fish over 6 feet long or 200 pounds. "We've now confirmed now that this catfish is the current record holder, an astonishing find."
The fish was caught and eaten in a remote village in Thailand along the Mekong River, home to more species of giant fish than any other river. Local environmentalists and government officials negotiated to release the record-breaking animal so it could continue its spawning migration in the far north of Thailand, near the borders of Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and China - also known as the "Golden Triangle"). But the fish, an adult male, later died. The species is declining, which fishermen in the region blame on upstream dams and environmental deterioration. The specimen is the largest giant catfish ever recorded; it is listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest freshwater fish.
The Mekong giant catfish is Southeast Asia's largest and rarest fish and the focus of Dr. Hogan's project along with about two-dozen other species around the world such as the giant freshwater stingray, the infamous dog-eating catfish, the dinosaur-like arapaima, and the Chinese paddlefish - all of which remain contenders for the title of the world's largest fish. Long shots for the title include caviar-producing sturgeon, goliath Amazon catfish, giant lungfish, razor-toothed gars, massive cods, and Mongolian salmon.
"I'm thrilled that we've set a new record, but we need to put this discovery in context: these giant fish are uniformly poorly studied and some are critically endangered. Some, like the Mekong giant catfish, face extinction," continued Dr. Hogan. "My study of giant freshwater fish is showing a clear and global pattern: the largest fish species are disappearing. The challenge is clear: we must find methods to protect these species and their habitats. By acting now, we can save animals like the Mekong giant catfish from extinction."
The Mekong River Basin is home to more species of massive fish than any river on Earth. It is also the most productive fishery in the world, generating $1.7 billion each year. Fish from the Mekong are the primary source of protein for the 73 million people that live along the river.
I'm a firm-believer in mixing with vinyl, but this is so sweet, it almost makes me want to cry.
"Audiopad is a composition and performance instrument for electronic music which tracks the positions of objects on a tabletop surface and converts their motion into music. One can pull sounds from a giant set of samples, juxtapose archived recordings against warm synthetic melodies, cut between drum loops to create new beats, and apply digital processing all at the same time on the same table. Audiopad not only allows for spontaneous reinterpretation of musical compositions, but also creates a visual and tactile dialogue between itself, the performer, and the audience."
The brakes on my car went out. I have to go from Central Hillside in Duluth to the UWS campus every morning between 9am and 10am, Mon-Fri. I would pay someone $10.00 a week to let me ride with them to Superior, I don't need a ride home. Also, I don't usually murder people and can provide character references. Email me [email protected]
Environmental Hysteria Guy again here, folks. This time I want to tell you about a truly positive and visionary project that Bob Bruce at City Planning and other city officials are trying to put the kibosh on.
The Sweetwater Alliance has spent years working on a project that will improve our water and environment, create an innovative tourist draw, and make things happy for little non-human creatures, all at the same time! It's called a Living Garden.
There's a very important City Council meeting coming up that will either kill or continue this great project. The folks at Sweetwater Alliance can tell you more.
Sooner or later, someone will come along and make a new "Grizzly Adams" movie. Who should star in it? Should Willie Nelson reprise every Denver Pyle role?
PUBLIC SERVICE: No need for everyone to have to spend the extra time of de-heading a Gartman. Download your favorite Photoshop Garthead for easy use right here!
you may remember me as the girl who randomly showed up at the alan sparhawk/sight like december/no wait wait in-basement performance last week -- "the girl from the blog." if not, then hello.
my friend jason recently had a killer idea: capture duluth in colors. i think this is going to happen week to week, so once we finished our first one, we decided to share it with you.
I've never played Ultimate before, but I'm not letting that stop me from taking part in the big pick-up game on Sunday at Chester Bowl. You should play, too. It's an open invitation.
If you don't know the rules, this should explain things good enough.
The plan is to play every summer Sunday at 10 a.m., rain or shine. This week is the first week. Everyone is going to be out of shape and uncoordinated, so don't be embarrassed.
Even I'm unsure how this works, but once again I'm coming back to visit Duluth for a week and a half. This time, I've actually got a mission: run a race on Grandma's weekend. (Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am unsure at this time if I'm doing the full or the half.)
So who else is going to suffer on blacktop Saturday morning? Jeff Cork will be doing the full ...
Michael Jackson found innocent of all charges. In other news, Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson will be teaming up to form a crime-fighting duo! They will search for their adversaries, "The Real Killer" and "The Real Molester".
Last Monday I left for Vail, CO. I'm going to try my hand at this vlogging thing (any tips from starfire or barrett would be very welcome.)
Here's my first entry. I visited the official Kool-Aid museum in Hasting, NE. Sorry the quality is kind of low. I'm using a free host right now that limits video to 10mb. I had to keep tweaking it to get it down to 10.
(tip, when the page pops up, right click on the video and set the zoom to 200%) http://www.livejournal.com/community/life_in_vail/
We quit bitching and decided to put on our own music festival.
Please come.
July 8th and 9th
Norshor Theater
Duluth, MN
Music From:
Trampled By Turtles, Icollide, Doomtree, The Swiss Army, Digitata, Building Better Bombs, Al Sparhawk, Anthony Bennett, Fair-weather Friend, Rada, Portrait Of A Drown Man and many more...
Entertainment:
"P Is For Profanity" a dirty puppet show by Jim and Allen Richardson
So, what's the weirdest thing you've done while asleep? I wrote this story today about sleepwalking.
I also had a dream this morning that I was making faces at a dog. According to my girlfriend, I was making those faces in my sleep. She just laid there and watched the show.
This is the neato-keenest thing I've seen on the web this week! How to Make Your Own Totally SweetMario Question Blocksand Put Them Up Around Town Because It's Really Awesome!
Hello, our little band will be playing at the Electric Fetus Wednesday around 6 and Saturday over at Striker's in Superior opening for Ferd Mert and Reno Divorce. Bar-B-Q and hole in one putt putt contest for free drinks start at 7 and music starts at 930.
Does any one know of a 1974-1977 Ford F250 for sale? Any of the F-series will do, since I'm more interested in the body style than the motor. I'm not looking for one already restored per se, but one that will at least run. A manual 4 speed is also preferred.
This might be more tacky than the already shameless self promotion, but I have a few drum/percussion items for sale if anyone is interested: a Sabian 17" Pro Crash - $50.00 A new one goes for about $80.00 over at:http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=perc/search?b=1298&c=4859&c=4866 More to follow later.
Can you believe it? PDD will be 2 years old this month. That means it is time to pay up for Hosting Services and Domain Name registration. This all comes to about $140 bucks a year and gives us unlimited bandwidth.
I personally don't mind footing the bill because I love having this community space. However if any of you all are feeling a bit generous I have set up a Fund Drive where you can donate any amount of moola via PayPal. Just click on the logo below!
Thanks in advance for your support. If you are not comfortable using PayPal but would like to contribute, send me an email (starfire at gmail dot com) and stay tuned for some exciting changes to PDD coming up this month!
The following events that will take place on Tuesday, were you to miss them, would cause you much heartache and an acute I've-been-left-out feeling. So you'd better fucken go.
Tuesday June 7, 2005 - No Wait Wait in-store performance and CD release at the Electric Fetus, 5pm - CD release party at the Keepaways/John's basement (email [email protected] if'n you dunno where it is), featuring: Alan Sparhawk, 8pm Sight Like December, 9pm No Wait Wait, 10pm
How many ticks have you pulled off yourself so far this spring? Right now I'm tied at one with my girlfriend and her dog. The dog gets extra credit though, because he got a good chunk of his neck chewed off.
With all the rain, we haven't really spent a lot of time in the woods, but we still keep finding these nasty little bloodsuckers around the house.
Anyway, let's keep a running tally and see who ends up being the 2005 tick champion of Duluth. I would rather it not be me, but if it is I want credit.
so i picked up the new issue of out magazine to read on the plane back to our fair city and lo and behold duluth/superior pride festival was voted best (or hot) small town pride festival, according to their annual hot list. (i really, really tried to link this up, but i'm dealing with dial-up)
This site makes extensive use of cascading style sheets and JavaScript, and will probably look awful on systems that do not allow such fancy technology. Also, it probably looks better on version 6.x browsers, and monitors with 1024x768 resolution.
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I remember eating chinese food with him back stage at the orpheum during a SA, Magnolias and Run Westy gig. Died of throat cancer...light up!
