Recently, a woman in her early 20s showed me pictures of herself posing with a big fish. The rare species can only be found in the Mekong river. Of course, it is the Mekong giant catfish, or pla buek.
In the photo, the fish was laid on the concrete kitchen floor of a local restaurant in Khong Chiam, a border town in Ubon Ratchathani. The town is located at the confluence of the Mekong and Mun rivers.
Another picture showed her mother, the restaurant owner, in a shocking pink blouse and perfect hairdo, squatting behind the fish, with a huge smile.
“It was caught this morning and sold to us by a fisherman,” said the daughter, with excitement, while sliding more pictures on her mobile phone to show me.
I asked her if I could see the catfish and was told by the owner that the cook had already sliced it. It weighed more than 150kg, she said. “In our restaurant, we serve Mekong giant catfish all year round,” she claimed, to my surprise.
As far as I know it is illegal to catch giant catfish in Thailand or even in Laos and Cambodia. I have never liked the idea of eating pla buek, although I have heard people say that it is delicious.
The fish is one of the most threatened species in the Mekong river, and is listed as an critically endangered species by International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The fish can grow up to 3m long, weigh up to 300kg and live for more than 60 years. The giant Mekong catfish also looks unique, with low-set round eyes and silvery to grey skin. It is a toothless herbivore and lives on algae and plants growing in the riverbed. When young, it has whiskers or barbels, which shrink as the fish grows.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the total number of giant catfish in the Mekong river has decreased by 90% in the last decade. Threats to the world’s biggest freshwater fish, as well as several other giant migratory fish species in the Mekong, include overfishing, habitat destruction and dams that block migration routes and disrupted their life cycles. Without the ability to move up and down rivers, the fish have fewer opportunities to breed.
As a result, local and international conservationists have chosen the Mekong giant catfish as a “flagship”
species to promote conservation along the Mekong river.
Sadly, the locals in Khong Chiam feel otherwise. I was dismayed to learn that they were happy that they had bought this endangered species fresh for the table.
I remembered my trip to Chiang Khong a couple of months ago. The city borders Chiang Rai and is located on the banks of the Mekong river, opposite Ban Huay Xai in Laos. Like Khong Chiam, several restaurants in Chiang Khong have Mekong giant catfish on their menus.
One local restaurateur claimed that whenever a giant catfish is caught, it would be offered to her because it fetched a high price at the table. She said a giant catfish is priced at 60,000-100,000 baht, depending on the size. She also encouraged me to come back to the town around the middle of April to experience the local festival of harvesting Mekong giant catfish in the Ban Hat Khrai community in Chiang Khong.
The annual hunt is traditional for local fishermen and has been performed for generations. The hunting period normally lasts about a month from the middle of April to the middle of May.
For many years, the fishermen have not caught a giant catfish — the last time being in April 2006. However, the two fish that were caught died before being released back into the river.
Due to the drastic drop in the number of giant catfish, 60 fishermen of the Pla Buek Fishing Club in Ban Huay Khrai have pledged to stop their annual hunt.
While there are international and local efforts to help preserve the Mekong giant catfish, local restaurants are still happy to sell the fish as long as people are happy to eat it.
Karnjana Karnjanatawe is a travel writer for the Life section of the Bangkok Post.