Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum

Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: clarki on June 20, 2022, 11:58:14 PM

Title: World’s biggest freshwater fish?
Post by: clarki on June 20, 2022, 11:58:14 PM: I’m curious why this stingray is called the world’s largest freshwater fish
https://apple.news/AElWIEc42TIKiC5hHab1XEA

When Fraser River white sturgeon weigh well in excess of that. For example, this one
https://globalnews.ca/news/8934001/b-c-700-pound-sturgeon-fraser-river-fishing/amp/

Is it b/c sturgeon might be anadromous, or sport caught sturgeon weights are estimates, or just a case of my country is better than yours?
Title: Re: World’s biggest freshwater fish?
Post by: GordJ on June 21, 2022, 05:53:24 AM: Clarki I, I think that they purposely leave out the “scaled” description. I ran into the same question on the arapaima and their answer was that sturgeon don’t have scales while the arapaima does and, apparently, the ray has something called micro scales. Just marketing.
Title: Re: World’s biggest freshwater fish?
Post by: pwn50m3 f15h3r on June 21, 2022, 11:53:00 PM: Quote from: clarki on June 20, 2022, 11:58:14 PM
I’m curious why this stingray is called the world’s largest freshwater fish
https://apple.news/AElWIEc42TIKiC5hHab1XEA

When Fraser River white sturgeon weigh well in excess of that. For example, this one
https://globalnews.ca/news/8934001/b-c-700-pound-sturgeon-fraser-river-fishing/amp/

Is it b/c sturgeon might be anadromous, or sport caught sturgeon weights are estimates, or just a case of my country is better than yours?

I’m sure the lack of a precise number with sport caught fish has something to do with it. I think the point that sturgeon aren’t strictly freshwater is a better explanation because you could theoretically also justify something like a bull shark as a freshwater fish if you stretched the definition
Title: Re: World’s biggest freshwater fish?
Post by: colin6101 on June 22, 2022, 09:22:00 AM: It is because sturgeon don't exclusively live in freshwater. I read a few articles on this stingray and that was mentioned in all of them as the reason this is considered the largest.
Title: Re: World’s biggest freshwater fish?
Post by: RalphH on June 22, 2022, 10:33:23 AM: there are many sturgeon populations both in North America and Eurasia that are landlocked and so cannot be anadromous. Some are landlocked by dam construction and some by geology.
Title: Re: World’s biggest freshwater fish?
Post by: clarki on June 22, 2022, 06:34:14 PM: So I guess if there was a reliable and accepted way to weigh C &R sport caught fish, and tissue sampling to prove that a fish from the Lillooet reach of the river did not migrate to the ocean during its life…THEN we could lay claim to the world’s largest freshwater fish.

To borrow from The Princess Bride, that would be a noble quest!
Title: Re: World’s biggest freshwater fish?
Post by: firstlight on June 25, 2022, 10:19:27 PM: They can have there steenking Steengrays!