Giant man-eating catfish found in Guangdong reservoir?

As an international professional sport fisherman, I can say without a doubt that this is a juvenile whale shark. There are several identifying features that distinguish this animal from any species of giant catfish. Apart from coloration and markings, it has a larger dorsal fin (as exemplified from the first photo showing 2 men holding it to one side), the aforementioned gill structure and the color of the flesh itself. The fact that this "fish" has no barbels or whiskers is NOT an identifying feature as some species of catfish do NOT have whiskers such as the Giant Mekong Catfish (Pangasianodon gigas), the Giant Catfish (Pangasius sanitwongsei) as this animal is purported to be, or the Striped Catfish (Pangasius hypophthalmus).

ok this is gonna sound ehh but here it is i am a fisherman from the southern USA but i have caught catfish on three continents US,SOUTH AMERICA,and,SPAIN where the largest cats of the world are. I have not a doubt in my mind that there are large cats in Asia cause there R. Can't wait to make that my next trip but based on the pics i see here and the cats around the world i have seen in person that does include aquariums all of them have barbels"whiskers" and this fish does not even have cut marks where those might have been.THIS IS NOT A CATFISH THIS IS A WHALE SHARK!!!!!!!!

Hahaha #10 just made my night.

FRASER RIVER STURGEON?

THE FURRY BLACK ARE EGGS(ROE CAVIAR)

Number 10 you're an idiot. There were no people when dinosaurs were around. And that was no catfish. It was a whale shark, an endangered species. Why does China kill endangered species? Why? They want cash. Stupid Chinese whale shark killers...

Even just in the first photo' you can see it's a whale shark, because of the characteristic ribs along its tail.

We can't really complain in the west about people in the east eating dogs while we continue to eat pigs, who are just as affectionate and sensitive as dogs and as intelligent as a three-year-old human child. Killing endangered species, however, is a no-no wherever you are.

The nutcase who was talking about dinosaurs eating humans wasn't as far out as it sounds, because we now know that birds are in fact flying dinosaurs, as closely related to other dinosaurs as bats are to other mammals. So dinosaurs have been and are contemporary with humans, and there have been some giant birds big enough to threaten a human, or at least a human baby. But I don't suppose that was what they had in mind!

When will the F.....g chinese wake up and realise we cant keep killing things just because we can make few bucks.Its just like Rhinos ,Tigers, Bears and sharks will never become extinct.P.R.I.C.K.S............................

Thats so gross and creepy!!!

THat is mean! If you were the fish how would you feel!?

okay sereisly thats gross!

i am the last one on!! i think. the cut open part is sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo gross it ain't even funny!! wut does anyone else think 'bout it!?

WOW!!! Thats awsome beside when it got cut open!!!! Poor fish!

Some cultures can be so ignorant. Its this kind of sensless killing that put the whale shark on the endangered species list to begin with. anyone who thinks stupid remidies like juice from a bears gullbladder is going cure your ailments, or a tigers brain cures pimples, really must have their head examined. This is most obviously a whale shark bearing almost no resmblence to a catfish whatsoever it was most likely just an excuse to publicly chop up and kill a living creature with the wanton selfish disregard for life and a complete lack of education about the preservation of endangered species. Being human should be enough to realize that butchering an animal like this in the streets is wrong no wonder the government is washing its hands of this.

definitely a whale shark

A)multiple gill slits

B)solid pectoral fins (every fish that I have seen has segmented fins)

Thats it I'm going to the zoo and killing a Panda!!

As cool as it would be to say that it really is a giant man-eating catfish, I have to agree with other comments and say that this is a whale shark. A friend of mine told me about a giant-man eating catfish, but he said that it was in that amazon. If you do know anything about REAL giant man-eating catfish in the amazon, please contact me.

Algebra I Honor student

(AKA Honor Student)

the only shark that can move between salt and fresh water is the bull shark. simple as.

I knew it. We are all pink on the inside. I just checked.

i've had a whale of a time reading these comments

I can confirm that the “man-eating catfish” was indeed a whale shark, often referred to as the gentle giant of the sea. I can also confirm that they were added to the UN’s list of species threatened with extinction in 2002. The problem with fishing for this species is that they are what’s known as K-selected species. Like most sharks, they have a life history similar to that of humans. Females don’t mature for decades and they can live for up to 100 years. They reproduce very slowly. Gestation is not yet known but some researchers have estimated that they’re pregnant for up to 48 months.

As others have said, the whale shark doesn’t have teeth per se. It lives on tiny fish and plankton. It sucks in vast quantities of water, then “clenches” the comb like plates in its mouth and shoots the water out again, leaving these little critters behind. Amazing to think that a 34-tonne adult can survive like that.

Someone commented earlier that these were a “Chinese species”. They’re not! They inhabit all warm tropical waters and have been known to swim into cooler waters on occasion. Satellite tags have been placed on whale sharks and one was “followed” on a 2,000 km journey. Whale sharks belong to the world, and many countries are benefiting from whale shark tourism. In Indonesia, ex-fishermen have been re-trained as tourist guides, taking people out in boats to spot them. Millions of tourist dollars (way more than the market value for the meat) are being earned in Australia, Belize, Mexico and elsewhere. I have a photo of someone snorkelling in Mexico, surrounded by whale sharks.

China is among the last handful of countries that still tolerates the killing of whale sharks, although there is a ban in Taiwan. They used to have a whale shark fishery but the killing of whale sharks was banned last year. This year, further restrictions were added: whale shark meat cannot be sold anywhere in Taiwan and any individuals caught accidentally in set nets have to be returned to the sea, whether alive or dead. This was because whale sharks were caught deliberately and their meat sold, while the fishers claimed that they were caught accidentally. Now, there’s no incentive to catch them.

A Qingdao newspaper reported on Sept.6th that two whale sharks were caught in the Lingshan Island area, Shandong Province. One was 6.5 metres long and weighed 3650 kg. The other was 4.5 metres long and weighed 1665 Kg. The whale shark can reach 20 metres, so these two were pretty much juveniles that had not had a chance to breed. That’s about as anti-conservation as it gets.

Susie

I can't determine which comments are more ignorant: the beliefs that dinosaurs ate humans or the crude remarks on how "Orientals" will eat anything.

For those professing the first belief: How about reading a book for once in your life? Public education systems are a joke (in both the East and the West), if you want to really know about the theories regarding the formation of the universe you'll need to read Stephen Hawkins "A Brief History of Time." We already have enough ignorant students in the US thanks to Bush's neutering of the educational system, its a shame that similar ignorance is being taught in the rest of the world.

For those promoting the second belief: Us "Orientals" eat those things because that is what is locally available to us. Dogs and other fare are only used in poorer regions. However, I guess its easy for you to talk since all you have to do for food is cry to mommy and daddy for money and drive to the nearest restaurant.

People around the world, grow up before we end up nuking each other back to the stone age.

Imposible, a big cat fish live in reservoir. Few reasons can be considered due to a) genetic mutation(10-20% occurance) b) human factor( someone else has introduce the catfish in the reservoir since from young or raised it(80-100% occurance) C)history of reservoir with previous giant catfish( 5-10% occurance) d)false information post by media(80-100% occurance)

Hopefully, the officer investigate this type of case and give a complete report or response to the public. thanx

so #10 and i(#48) have stupid comments because we use logic?

# 68

The west has tried educating in a wide range of subjects. Instead, China keeps making the same lame excuses. China only responds to scolding like some pouty, bad-mannered child.

bad, bad China.

nanheyangrouchuan

It is a whale shark.

It has been captured illegally and is obviously being cut up for eating purposes.

I guess the accompanying story has been concocted to provide a 'smokescreen' around the reality of it.

Send these pictures around the world and get people aware of what is happening in China.

The PRC is very concerned about its global image at the moment with the Olympics in Beijing just around the corner.

This sort of press will portray them in a very bad light, and as such, it means they maybe forced to take action against the perpetrators of this crime.

But let's not take our frustrations out on the Chinese that do this kind of thing.

We all know that a lot of China is in poverty and food is food.

Tell your hungry kid that he can't eat today because the only potential food you could find had been classified as endangered by some foreigner in an office 10,000 miles away.

Sounds trite, I know, but it happens.

Western cultures are not innocent of this kind of incident either. We should be using our experience and knowledge to try and educate instead of just attacking them for it.

Shit happens. Learn from it and move on.

真是要了命了!!!

"The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated"

Gandhi

It's a peaceful whale shark, a plankton eater !

and its an ENDANGERED SPECIES !!!!

Boycott ALL CHINESE products until CHINA stops the killing of endangered species for stupid purposes : i.e. sharks, tigers, rhinoceroses, wrasses, and so on...

Hey, #26! Watch it! Not all asians eat dogs and cats and critically endangered marine wildlife, okay? I don't approve of it myself, so don't make generalizations, even implied ones! To think... my terrier could've read this!

Entensified!

ok soooo evolution does exist. God doesn't. Or Jonah for that matter. anybody that is asking how the whale shark (which is what that is) got into that reservoir, needs to be slapped. the photos are not from where they said they are.

Idiots Thats a Whale Shark look at the dots, I'm Off to tell the APA (Aquatic Protection Agency) And You Guys will get find big Bucks

only one reason... ALIENS!!!

Definitely a whale shark. You filet a fish, not make steaks out of it, like you would a shark. I can't believe they killed an endangered animal...oh well...that's China for ya.

that's my uncle you fuckers. Please respect the dead... moron!!!!chiu nia ma kow hai!!!

Thats awful... ive always wanted to swim with a whale shark and by the time i get a chance to they are all going to be cut up and sitting in some dirty Chineese fish market. >_

Ummm yeah def a Whale Shark just look at the gills lol screams shark to me.

the spots match up to that of a whale shark. It's obviously a whale shark! They're cutting it open for meat.

Okay...This is just stupid. Clearly, it's a whale shark. I could go on for a long while explaining why this is what it is, but here are the most obvious reasons. First, the unique pattern is that of a whale shark. Second, the flesh is a deep red color (as opposed to white, like almost all freshwater bony fishes)....which means it is highly vascularized, common to large fishes that swim long distances...like the whale shark. On top of that, there is a significant amount of fat, which is indicative of a fish that lives in the deep ocean. Third, and what proves this is a shark, are the gill slits. Bony fishes don't have gill slits, they have operculae, (catfish are bony fish...even walking catfish). Members of Chondricthyes have gill slits.

The part that looks like the human remains is actually the liver. Sharks have huge livers, which aids in buoyancy, since they do not have swim bladders like other fish.

I don't know where these pictures were taken (I highly doubt they were taken anywherenear a freshwater reservoir), but that is a whale shark. And yes, it's a pretty young/small one.

It's a Whale Shark, just look at the gills. Catfish don't have slit gills like that, nor do they have those spotted markings. It just is not, and never will be, a Catfish.

I think he's either been smoking the Bible or something on wry.

#48, I'll have what you've been smoking.

Of Course its a big catfish don`t you people watch the Simpsons.hahahahahahahaha

@#48

Finally, a post dumber than #10!!!

19, you're an idiot, humans were on the earth at the same time as the dinosaurs. The evolution theory is a load of mixed up BS. If the earth was millions of years old, the earth would've collapsed already. Watch the science channel and eventually a program will come on about the earth's core.

If evolution was true, there would be solid proof that would make sense. (e.x.e my old teacher explaining the Big Bang the best I can remember. Teacher: "The universe was created by the Big Bang" Me: "What made the Big Bang" Teacher: "Two meteors hit each other causing a massive explosion." Me: "How were the meteors created?" Teacher: (ignores question)"Any questions?")

But on the topic of the fish...it looks good enough to make sushi with a side of unagi. :P

I am shocked to see sucj beautiful and peaceful whale shark in these conditions. It is well known what Chinese and other countries people do to whale sharks but unfortuntaley nobody cares much or say much.

I am disgusted, totally.

Funny how the World praises China Growth but avoid talking about hot issues, starting from Human Rights to Animal Rights.

Alice, Shanghai

The simplest way to tell a shark is by the gills. Much like a jeep they have slotted gills, and that is a shark not a catfish.

It may have been a whale shark due to it has no whiskers, it's spotted like a whale shark,its large mouth and it could have eaten someone by mistake, the bones were in there because didn't it eat a person a long time ago, it could have rotted until it was only bones??

Considering that the Chinese, Japanese and other oriental nations pretty much eat anything that moves (like dogs, cats, snakes, ostriches) I guess that this whale shark was targeted and other people tried to justify the act by saying it was killing people. Which makes me wonder why the peolple shredding it to pieces werent prosecuted, seeing as though it's illegal to kill an animal thats endangered. If they have been arrested in more recent times, then no worries. I respect other cultures and everything, but I think they should limit themselves as to what should be on the menu... I know that people wouldn't like it if others started killing Giant Panda's and eating them.

i think its some sort of mutated thing...

who cares? seriously, all this drama for no reason? why bother...

ha.

this is a whole lot of bull crap.

what a lame excuse to kill an endangered species

Yea this is most defiantly a whale shark. This is probably one of those fake emails or maybe someone didn't really know and jumped to conclusions.

Though I do know of a reported case of catfish being large enough to actually eat a man. This report came from my home town and 2 divers went to patch up the dam and they surfaced soon after claiming they saw giant catfish.

#39 whale sharks aren't really whales, they are just a very large fish.

Bad China is now into killing whales as another delicacy, then Bad China will try to blame the Japanese for introducing it and polluting pure Chinese thinking.

Bad, whale slaughtering China.

nanheyangrouchuan

I am 100% POSITIVE that this is a whale shark. Go to the link and compare the two. It is NOT a catfish!!!

I swear to god, post #10 has got to be a joke. Honestly 'high quality chinese fish meat' being exported. Come on like their is anything of high quality coming out of China.

Whiskers aside (who knows they got torn/cut off for some weird reason), you can obviously tell its a whale shark from the second picture with the head. It doesn't have a fish's gills but shark gills!

The head looks nothing like what you'd expect on a catfish or any other fish because a fish head looks like a completely different segment of the fish due to the way its gills are constructed.

I'm a bit concerned that people cant even tell the difference between a fish and a shark...and that people are willing to believe ridiculous stories because of a few photos.

Comment number 10 is rly funny. People werent around when dinosaurs were....some education hes got, either way, this is a phony thing

From Wun Hung Lo:

Me so horny.

It's clearly a whale shark, but it must be young because they can get a lot bigger than that.

Andy,

It's fairly obvious Shanghaiist spent "so long" typing this post because they knew thousands upon thousands of people like you would visit the website to look at this story, thus upping their advertising revenue.

Wake up.

Sam

It's clearly a whale shark:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=whale%20shark&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rls=com.google:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

I can't work out why you spend so long typing this blog post, when 10 seconds on google would have told you what these photographs actually showed. Wake up

It's pretty obvious by the way the whale shark is being sliced up in to steak-size portions what they intend to do with it. What doesn't end up on a plate, will probably be used for medicinal purposes (if you actually believe that it has any effect whatsoever, which, incidentally, i do not)

Andy

As a SCUBA instructor and avid diver who has dived with whale sharks I can without a doubt identify this as a Whale Shark. Everyone who has eaten catfish knows that the meat is white.

There is also zero evidence where this massacre happened. If the contents of the picture are being doubted should not the location be in doubt also? I dont see any "Welcome to Huadu" signs.

The fact they butchered this harmless shark increases level of contempt I have for this culture. The dissection is clearly meant to divide the carcass for consumption and not for investigation.

there must be something else in that reservoir, whale sharks are one of the most kind and affectionate water creature there is, I in fact know a fellow that crossed paths with them while scuba diving.

they can be a little rough, due to their size, but extremely playful!

there must be something else in that reservoir, whale sharks are one of the most kind and affectionate water creature there is, I in fact know a fellow that crossed paths with them while scuba diving.

they can be a little rough, due to their size, but extremely playful!

looks like their having sushi for dinner 2nite! XD if that thing IS a whale shark then how tha hell did it get into a reservoir????

Seems like Asians will kill and eat anything these days....

guess the taste of cats and dogs gets kina boring at some point...time to switch to a more EXTINCT diet!!!

the man they found is jonah!

this is obviously a whale shark. but what would would they be living on in freshwater? its said that whales throats are too small to fit a human. maybe it is a cat fish and the man they supposedly found was Jonah!

Yes its a whale shark, specifically a young male. Full, mature whale sharks are much bigger, with more pronounced fins.

It is a delicacy in China, Taiwan an most of south east Asia. It is very expensive meat, because of its soft white texture.

While being illegal in most places, where the pic was taken (most likely Taiwan - which has great access to the Pacific) they are allowed to hunt and sell whale shark meat and pieces, but is monitorted by the UNTO and CITES, to ensure they are not over-fished, and endanger the species.

While this prank is funny, more so the fact that people believe it and take a very hot-heated stance to defend it, it is just another e-hoax. Have a giggle then move on, eh?

that's a whale shark. gotta say I'm sad to see it getting butchered like that, their fun to swim with.

tho number 10s post cheered me right up. lol

its funny how defensive someone can get over a rather obvious prank but i would suggest knowing what your talking about first. XD

Actually #20 it is true that the Chinese civilization was amazingly far ahead of every other culture for a long time. Then they didn't go exploring the world cuz they figured they had he perfect civilization and slowly fell behind. I'm not Chinese I live in the United States. I learned this in history class. They had fallen behind by the time the worker immigrations started taking place.

as for which fish it is it has fins that the cat fish doesn't. It lacks whiskers. and its the wrong color. For this to be a catfish it would have had to be reallly badly mutated. If this story is true I would never drink from that reservoir. Ever. I like having just 2 eyes -=)

Number 10 had to have been the dumbest post I've ever read in my entire life..And that's no exaggeration...I once read a post saying how babies actually came from a cabbage patch..But this one ousted it in stupidity....

Even the people that wrote the article are saying that the pictures were probably nto even taken at the place stated....I could take a picture of a deer that I hunted and smeared blood on it's mouth then go on to say that we found it in the middle of africa feasting on a pack of lions....

It has nothing to do with hating the chinese...I especially like how they said the chinese were richer before Westerners and such...If that's the case...Why were they imported to build the railroads here?

uhh great arguments # 10, especially the one about how dinosaurs used to eat humans all the time, very scientific. except for the fact that dinosaurs and humans were never on the earth at the same time.

One thing's fo sho:

THAT BITCH IS DEAD

1)Go to your local fishmonger

2)buy or just look at catfish meat

3)note color of said meat

Catfish are opportunistic bottom feeders that do not get enough Iron in their diet to give their muscle tissue that nice deep red seen in the picture their muscles are a creamy white. They also do not develop multi-layer musculature. Their bodies are divided into only a few main muscles; the primary two running from gills to tail(anyone whose ever had to skin one could tell you all this). Whatever it is it sure isn't a catfish.

@ 14, point 6): whale shark's esophagus isn't larger than a clinched fist, there's no way they could ingest anything bigger than that. Unless, of course, they chew it for a very long time... :P

The pictures are of a [url=http://www.aims.gov.au/pages/a...]whale shark[/url].

It doesn't matter that whale sharks don't eat people or can't swim in salt water because the entire article is BS.

1) Salt water animals show up in fresh water lakes from time to time. Besides, the rest of the article is nonsense, so why assume that the location is correct?

2) Agree

3) The tail is flopped over onto the ground. You can see it in the first picture.

4+5) It looks like a whale shark to me. It has the same shape and the same coloration. Compare the first picture in the story to the first picture here:

Whale Shark

6) They don't eat people, but based on the picture you provided, the large ones wouldn't have much trouble accidentally swallowing a person.

This looks like a small whale shark to me.

1) Whale-sharks live in salt-water, not fresh-water. And they eat krill. Divers swim with them all the time.

2) The pictures do not show the supposed human remains.

3) If it were a whale-shark, you'd be able to easily see the gigantic tail (it'd be hard to hide).

4) If it were a whale-shark, its fins (especially its dorsal) would be much larger.

5) It's not a whale-shark because it just doesn't look like one.

6) Whale-sharks can't really eat humans. They don't have teeth. And if this were a whale-shark, it'd be a really weird and tiny one.

Whale-Shark Feeding

Don't catfish have whiskers?

#10, I'll have whatever you've been smoking.

The fact that anyone would consider this to be a fabrication shows just how ignorant the westerners and foreigners are about China. There are giant snakes all over the world that eat people all of the time. It is a scientific fact that hardly a day goes by in Africa without some villager disappearing in the mouth of giant snakes. So why you think that this fish can't eat anyone??? Maybe just because it is a Chinese fish and you can't even believe such a story that a fish in China could grow to be the biggest??? I think this fish is even big enough to eat most foreigners.

There In ancient times, there were dinosaurs that always ate and killed human beings and therefore there is no reason why there can't be a fish that is doing this to us now. There are records in Chinese language about this and that was before the foreign people practically learned to walk upright and every Chinese was rich and advanced when you were living in dirt holes and stealing from Chinese to try to have an easy life.

I know today our country has problems and maybe the pollution was the cause of this giant fish that killed so many people. But there are already too many people in China and there are too many Chinese people today, so maybe this kind of fish could be helpful to our country as we follow the Olympic dreams of harmonious development. Maybe there is a good part about this since if we have all of these giant fish, we can catch them and export them to the world and everyone can enjoy high-quality Chinese fish meats. But we won't let them eat people anymore, so no swimming will be allowed.

PSB plans to put GPS tracking chips in Shenzhen ID cards:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/business/worldbusiness/12security.html?ei=5065&en=2d7edb61ed14cb4d&ex=1187496000&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

nanheyangrouchuan

I don't believe that, the fish haven't such sharp teeth that could eat people.

Pretty cool. For all the bad press China gets for driving species to extinction, they should at least get some for creating new ones.

Woot.

What is a whale shark doing all the way in Huadu? I used to live in Huadu 10 years ago - its a LONG way from the ocean. Heck, I've been to barbeques at Furong.

Weird.

Doing some quick research:

http://www.hku.hk/ecology/porcupine/por33/33-vert2-kenny.htm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=443987&in_page_id=1811

Which pretty much confirms what I originally thought when I saw this: They're just slaughtering the whale shark to sell (I thought this mainly because of the way they sliced it up).

"...if it is the whale shark, which is "vulnerable to extinction" according to Wikipedia, why did they kill it? Well, perhaps because they thought it killed a bunch of people."

Sadly, China's track record with endangered species isn't as good as I would like it to be... guess they should work on the human rights first.

In either case, the story is complete bologna. Just another internet chain mail masterpiece

-Eds

sasquatch [dot] eds [at] gmail [dot] com