Mukdahan locals snag big rare carp

Locals residing along the banks of the Mekong River in Mukdahan caught a large spawning seven stripped carp (probarbus jullieni), weighing 40 kilograms, on Thursday. The rare carp was sold to the Fisheries Provincial Office under a conservation project to prevent the fish from becoming extinct.

Mukdahan Fisheries Provincial Office with the cooperation of the province’s Inland Aquaculture Research and Development Centre has carried out the project to conserve the seven stripped carps. The project is to buy the fish from the local fishermen at a higher price than the market for breeding by setting up a breeding camp on the Mekong River bank at Ban Song Khon in Wan Yai district, Mukdahan province.

The largest spawning seven stripped carp was caught on Thursday which weighed about 40 kilograms. So far, the fishermen have caught 20 of the first batch of carp in the spawning season this year, which has started at the end of October at the beginning of the winter season. Once the fish are caught, there will be fisheries officers waiting to buy the fish 24 hours a day and bring them to the camp to conduct a breeding procedure. The carp are then nursed before they will be released to the Mekong River and other water sources.

Mukdahan locals snag big rare carp
The seven stripped carp is a freshwater fish that is classified as a large fish species in the carp family. When fully grown, the fish size can be up to 130 centimetres long. The spawning female seven stripped carp can weigh up to 40 kilograms. The fish can usually be found in the Mekong River basin and the Central plains of Thailand.
However, due to its tastiness, the seven stripped carps have been caught until near extinction. The Department of Fisheries has therefore accelerated the breeding by artificial insemination in a bid to preserve the creature for sustainability.