After this 400 pound stingray was accidentally caught by fishermen, it was released back into its natural habitat in the Mekong River. The river is a refuge for some of the world’s largest and most endangered freshwater fish EndangeredSpeciesDay
As the Mekong River descends into Cambodia from neighboring Laos, flowing languidly past sandbanks and forest-covered islands, it’s hard to imagine the explosion of life that occurs underneath its surface.
In the week prior to the ray capture, Hogan, who is also a National Geographic Explorer, led a scientific expedition to the area. On the international team of researchers taking part were two other Nat Geo Explorers: Kakani Katija, a deep sea researcher, and Kenny Broad, a cave diver and University of Miami environmental anthropologist.
Katija, who leads the Bioinspiration Lab at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, sees many similarities between the deep pools of the Mekong and the deep sea environment her team normally explores: deep water, little ambient light, and currents along the bottom. “What makes working in the Mekong River challenging, particularly from an imaging standpoint, is the high turbidity, or low visibility, even in the deepest depths,” she says.
Broad, who has long experience diving in deep blue holes in places like the Bahamas, likened diving in the Mekong to “swimming in a bathtub of café con leche.” “Add strong currents, depths over 80 meters, and [various] debris and you have an extremely challenging environment to explore,” he says.For several years, Wonders of the Mekong scientists have conducted community and market surveys to gather information about aquatic biodiversity in the deep pools area.
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