Giant Freshwater Stingray - Relationship To Humans

Relationship To Humans

This species is threatened by overfishing and habitat loss; the World Conservation Union has assessed the giant freshwater stingray as endangered over most of its range, except in Thailand where it is Critically Endangered. It is occasionally caught as bycatch by longlines and gillnets in central Thailand and likely elsewhere. This species is sold for meat and possibly cartilage; adult fish are not usually used for food but may still be killed or maimed by fishers. There is a growing sport fishery for this species. When caught on a line, it may bury itself under large quantities of mud, making it almost impossible to lift. It is also capable of pulling boats significant distances or underwater.

In Thailand, the freshwater stingray is assessed as Critically Endangered with a high risk of extinction. A combination of deforestation, dam construction, and development has degraded, altered, and fragmented river habitats such that only a fraction of Thailand's native fish species still breed in the wild. In the 1990s, the Thai government initiated a captive breeding program to bolster the population of this and other freshwater stingray species until the habitat degradation can be remedied. However, the program was later put "on hold".