It's Just a Catfish

[Olivier]

A good 6 lb test should do the trick . . .
It's Just a Catfish!

For all those crazy guys who go 'noodling' for catfish and stick their arms down the fish's throat, this would be 'all the catfish you can eat. Each year, a few people were drowning or disappearing mysteriously in Huadu's Furong Reservoir. It was not until recently, when the son of a government official went swimming, in the reservoir and was drowned, that the secret was revealed. It is a 3 meter long man-eating catfish, whose head alone is 1 meter wide! After cutting up the catfish, people were surprised to find the remains of another man inside! Swimming in the reservoir is now forbidden, because it is feared that another similar, man-eating catfish is still lurking in the waters.

It's Just a Catfish!


__

 

[Steve0xr]

No thats a whale.......

 

[Phyl]

Certainly seems to have more in common with a whale! Look how big it is! Whoah.

 

[DanJ]

Commentary:
According to this email forward, the very large fish shown in the attached photographs is a man-eating catfish caught in the Furong Reservoir, a large lake located in China's Huadu District. The message claims that human remains were found inside the giant fish and suggests that it, and possibly other "catfish" like it, are responsible for the "mysterious" disappearances of people in the area.

However, the claims in the message are nonsense. The photographs themselves are genuine, but they do not depict a catfish, man-eating or otherwise. Instead, they show a whale shark. Whale sharks, which are the largest living fish, are filter feeders that live in the ocean. Despite their size, whale sharks are not considered harmful to humans. A Wikipedia entry about whale sharks notes:
This species, despite its enormous size, does not pose any significant danger to humans. It is a frequently cited example when educating the public about the popular misconceptions of all sharks as "man-eaters". They are actually quite gentle and can be playful with divers. There are unconfirmed reports of sharks lying still, upside down on the surface to allow divers to scrape parasites and other organisms from their torso. Divers and snorkelers can swim with this giant fish without any risk apart from unintentionally being struck by the shark's large tail fin.
The following photographs, which are obviously part of the same series, show the whale shark being skinned and cut open to reveal the fish's entrails. They are generally left out of the prank email, presumably because the obvious lack of human remains inside the fish tend to "give the game away".



Thus, as is often the case, it seems that some unknown prankster has simply invented a tall tale to go with a set of interesting images. At first glance, whale sharks do have a passing resemblance to catfish, and it was perhaps this resemblance that sparked the idea of a "giant man-eating catfish" in the prankster's imagination.


http://images.google.com/imgres?img...de&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&tbs=isch:1

go to this website and see the photos of them opening it up..

 

[Olivier]

DanJ
thanks for verify this is a hoax.
I'll tell my spouse stop listen to her co-workers (i think her boss sent this out )

 

[Nickjr000]

Thought that looked like a whale shark. Its a smaller one though and still huge!

 

[dnov99]

Not to be off topic, but I actually think its extremely sad that these beautiful harmless creatures are killed without any remorse. At the rate rate we are going the oceans will be void of any life within 100 years.

Go watch a documentary like Sharkwater or The Cove and its a pretty big eye opener. It amazes me at how many people are so ignorant as to what is being done to the shark, whale, fish population.

 

[Hawkeye]

Not to be off topic, but I actually think its extremely sad that these beautiful harmless creatures are killed without any remorse. At the rate rate we are going the oceans will be void of any life within 100 years.

Go watch a documentary like Sharkwater or The Cove and its a pretty big eye opener. It amazes me at how many people are so ignorant as to what is being done to the shark, whale, fish population.

Eh...iceland and norway are hardly ignorant people but they actively hunt whales each year.

Can't speak to the dolphins in the cove (btw - although that recently won the oscar- they've been doing that for decades...I recall reading about it in national geographic when I was in elementary).

I can state that sharks (including that whale shark) are consumed in large quantities by people of chinese descent for cultural reasons. It's been that way for the past 500 years...at least. It's just that now with the power of the internet - people are more aware of the issue instantly.

 

[JRWOHLER]

I don't have a problem with eating sharks, what is terrible is finning sharks. That is a travesty.

 

[Olivier]

Finning is stupid. It cruel. that is why I stop eating those stupid chinese shark fin soup.

 

[Nickjr000]

[/quote]

Eh...iceland and norway are hardly ignorant people but they actively hunt whales each year.

Can't speak to the dolphins in the cove (btw - although that recently won the oscar- they've been doing that for decades...I recall reading about it in national geographic when I was in elementary).

I can state that sharks (including that whale shark) are consumed in large quantities by people of chinese descent for cultural reasons. It's been that way for the past 500 years...at least. It's just that now with the power of the internet - people are more aware of the issue instantly.
[/quote]

Couldnt agree more

 

[dnov99]

Not to be off topic, but I actually think its extremely sad that these beautiful harmless creatures are killed without any remorse. At the rate rate we are going the oceans will be void of any life within 100 years.

Go watch a documentary like Sharkwater or The Cove and its a pretty big eye opener. It amazes me at how many people are so ignorant as to what is being done to the shark, whale, fish population.

Eh...iceland and norway are hardly ignorant people but they actively hunt whales each year.

I can state that sharks (including that whale shark) are consumed in large quantities by people of Chinese descent for cultural reasons. It's been that way for the past 500 years...at least. It's just that now with the power of the internet - people are more aware of the issue instantly.

The people in Iceland and Norway and certain Eskimos in Alaska, do hunt whales, for the sole reason that they are their sole source of food. In addition, the amount of whales that they do hunt is minimal and has little or no impact on the population.

The killing of sharks for their fins has exploded in the last few decades along with the exploding populations of the Chinese and Japanese countries. The whaling industry in Japan is massive compared to what they are killing in the other countries you mentioned, there really is no comparison.

The fact that they have been doing it for 500 years is irrelevant. What is relevant is the massive increase in the killing of these animals due to the exponetially growing populations and increased demand due to this. Their is a huge difference between killing a shark to be "consumed" as you said, and killing a shark for its fin, which is my biggest issue. Like I said, go watch "Sharkwater" and maybe you will get an idea of what is happening to shark populations.