Half-ton whale shark caught in central Vietnam
Published by Tuoitrenews, 10. June 2012
Tran Quang Son, a fisherman in the central province of Thu Thien Hue, net-caught a giant fish, that is thought to be a whale shark, off the province this morning.
The species has a length of 4.5m and an estimated weight of 500 kilograms.
There is a belief that the captured often called as “Ca Ong” (whale) is sacred, so Son and other fishermen decided to release it back to sea.
However, it got exhausted and died at 10:20am the same day.
Local residents intend to hand over the fish to concerned authorities to serve scientific research or bury it in accordance with local customs.
Wikipedia statistics show whale shark is the sole member of the genus Rhincodon and the family Rhincodontidae. The species originated approximately 60 million years ago.
The whale shark is found in tropical and warm oceans and lives in the open sea with a lifespan of about 70 years, it added.
Source: Tuoitrenews.
Photo Credit: Thanh Nien.
That is very unfortunate.
Poor Shark. That is one of the most gentle sharks and looks like a miracle of nature from every point.