Thai fishermen netted a 646-pound catfish believed to have been the world’s largest freshwater fish ever caught in Thailand.

The nearly 9-foot-long Mekong giant catfish was landed May 1 by villagers in Chiang Khong, a remote district in northern Thailand, and weighed by Thai fisheries department officials, said Zeb Hogan, who leads an international project to locate and study the world’s largest freshwater fish species.

He confirmed it was the heaviest fish on record since Thailand started keeping such statistics in 1981.

The fishermen had hoped to sell the fish to environmental groups, which planned to release it to spawn upriver, but it died before it could be handed over and then was chopped up and sold in pieces to villagers as food.

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Be careful – your place in the food chain may get re-shuffled…

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At who-sucks, there is an amazing collection of 24 bizarre real life sea monsters. The collection includes real photos of the creatures, taken by fishermen of science labs and comments for each one. Some creatures seem more alien than anything you can imagine.

Here is a selected sample of the collection.

Chimaeras are cartilaginous fish related to the sharks and rays, and are sometimes called ghost sharks or rabbitfishes. For defense, most chimaeras have a venomous spine located in front of the dorsal fin.

The Colossal Squid, sometimes called the Antarctic or Giant Cranch Squid, is believed to be the largest squid species.

Typified by large heads with large mouths and eyes, grenadiers (rattails) have slender bodies that taper greatly to a very thin caudal peduncle or tail.

Oarfish are large, greatly elongated, pelagic Lampriform fish.

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