Fishermen in northern Thailand have netted a fish as big as a grizzly bear, a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish, the heaviest recorded since Thai officials started keeping records in 1981. The behemoth was caught in the Mekong River and may be the largest freshwater fish ever found.

The fishermen had hoped to sell the fish to environmental groups, which planned to release it to spawn upriver, but it died before it could be handed over so it was chopped up and sold in pieces (popup picture) to villagers as food. The fish was caught near a remote village in Thailand along the Mekong River, home to more species of giant fish than any other river.

Fishermen hold an annual ceremony at the start of the fishing season when they ask a river god for permission to catch the fish. Chicken sacrifices are performed aboard the fishing boats.

There is a long tradition of giant catfish fishing in Thailand and Laos. Cave paintings of the fish in northeast Thailand show it has captured the imagination of people living along the Mekong for more than a thousand years.

Mekong people believe it’s a sacred fish because it persists on plant matter and ‘meditates’ [in the deep, stony pools of the Mekong River]?somewhat like a Buddhist monk.

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