Portal latinoamericano de toxicología
Jeremy Wade fished one of the world’s biggest and deadliest stingray in Paraná River
16 December, 2011
Brit angler lands 20-stone stingray. thesun.co.uk. November 30, 2011. Brave Brit Jeremy Wade grappled with one of the world’s biggest and deadliest freshwater fish for four hours before reeling the whopper in.The 53-year-old caught the monster short-tailed stingray during a fishing trip to Argentina.The flat fish is one of the heaviest found in the world’s freshwater rivers and has been known to kill people with its lethal poisonous barb. Jeremy, host of the TV series River Monsters, hooked the 280lb specimen
while fishing on a small motor boat on the River Parana near Buenos
Aires.
Jeremy Wade con su raya gigante
After taking his bait of eel, the creature stuck itself to the bottom of the river, prompting an exhausting battle of wills with Jeremy.
The four hour stalemate was broken when the fish became tired and Jeremy was finally able to lift it towards the surface.
Even then he had to tow it towards the shore using his boat before he could see the huge fish in all its glory.
Jeremy, from Bath, Somerset, had to wear a pair of stab-proof gloves while he handled the creature which was then released back into the water safe and well.
Jeremy said: "This is the largest true freshwater fish that I have ever caught.
"It took me four hours to reel in. It just stuck to the bottom and burrowed itself into the sand and the mud, so it was like lifting a dead weight.
"It was a huge circular shape, humped in the middle and the same colour as the sand. My arms and back were completely shot afterwards, I was so tired."
People are normally only attacked by the mammoth stingray, whose Latin name is Potamotrygon brachyura, when they step on it by accident, as it lies camouflaged in sand.
The fish lashes out with its lethal tail covered in thorny spines that can rip flesh to the bone.
Its two barbed four-inch prongs can also inject a flesh-rotting venom.
Jeremy said: "If you get the barb through an artery or body cavity it can be fatal.
"It normally attacks feet and ankles from where people tread on them by accident.
"It can leave a nasty wound and take six or seven years to stop weeping.
"People in that area of Argentina shuffle their feet forward when walking through the surf so that they kick the side of it and not tread on top of it."
People can see Jeremy land the ray on the new series of River Monsters which will be shown on ITV in January.
River Monsters: Massive Freshwater Stingray
The four hour stalemate was broken when the fish became tired and Jeremy was finally able to lift it towards the surface.
Even then he had to tow it towards the shore using his boat before he could see the huge fish in all its glory.
Jeremy, from Bath, Somerset, had to wear a pair of stab-proof gloves while he handled the creature which was then released back into the water safe and well.
Jeremy said: "This is the largest true freshwater fish that I have ever caught.
"It took me four hours to reel in. It just stuck to the bottom and burrowed itself into the sand and the mud, so it was like lifting a dead weight.
"It was a huge circular shape, humped in the middle and the same colour as the sand. My arms and back were completely shot afterwards, I was so tired."
People are normally only attacked by the mammoth stingray, whose Latin name is Potamotrygon brachyura, when they step on it by accident, as it lies camouflaged in sand.
The fish lashes out with its lethal tail covered in thorny spines that can rip flesh to the bone.
Its two barbed four-inch prongs can also inject a flesh-rotting venom.
Jeremy said: "If you get the barb through an artery or body cavity it can be fatal.
"It normally attacks feet and ankles from where people tread on them by accident.
"It can leave a nasty wound and take six or seven years to stop weeping.
"People in that area of Argentina shuffle their feet forward when walking through the surf so that they kick the side of it and not tread on top of it."
People can see Jeremy land the ray on the new series of River Monsters which will be shown on ITV in January.
River Monsters: Massive Freshwater Stingray