Six critically endangered Mekong giant catfish — one of the largest and rarest freshwater fish in the world — were caught and released recently in Cambodia, reviving hopes for the survival of the species.

The underwater giants can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh up to 660 pounds, or as heavy as a grand piano. They now are only found in Southeast Asia’s Mekong River but in the past inhabited the length of the 3,044 mile-long river, all the way from its outlet in Vietnam to its northern reaches in China’s Yunnan province.

The species’ population has plummeted by 80% in recent decades due to rising pressures from overfishing, dams that block the migratory path the fish follow to spawn and other disruptions.  According to the World Wildlife Fund, some experts believe there may only be a few hundred Mekong giant catfish surviving.

Few of the millions of people who depend on the Mekong for their livelihoods have ever seen a giant catfish. To find six of the giants, which were caught and released within 5 days, is unprecedented.

The first two were on the Tonle Sap river, a tributary of the Mekong not far from Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. They were given identification tags and released. On Tuesday, fishermen caught four more giant catfish including two longer than 6.5 feet that weighed 264 pounds and 288 pounds, respectively. The captured fish were apparently migrating from their floodplain habitats near Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake northward along the Mekong River, likely to spawning grounds in northern Cambodia, Laos or Thailand.

“It’s a hopeful sign that the species is not in imminent, like in the next few years, risk of extinction, which gives conservation activities time to be implemented and to continue to bend the curve away from decline and toward recovery,” said Dr. Zeb Hogan, a University of Nevada Reno research biologist who leads the U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Wonders of the Mekong project.

Much is still unknown about the giant fish, but over the past two decades a joint conservation program by the Wonders of the Mekong and the Cambodian Fisheries Administration has caught, tagged and released around 100 of them, gaining insights into how the catfish migrate, where they live and the health of the species.

“This information is used to establish migration corridors and protect habitats to try to help these fish survive in the future,” said Hogan.

The Mekong giant catfish is woven into the region’s cultural fabric, depicted in 3,000-year-old cave paintings, revered in folklore and considered a symbol of the river, whose fisheries feed millions and are valued at $10 billion annually.

Local communities play a crucial role in conservation. Fishermen now know about the importance of reporting accidental catches of rare and endangered species to officials, enabling researchers to reach places where fish have been captured and measure and tag them before releasing them.

“Their cooperation is essential for our research and conservation efforts,” Heng Kong, director of Cambodia’s Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute, said in a statement.

Apart from the Mekong giant catfish, the river is also home to other large fish including the salmon carp, which was thought to be extinct until it was spotted earlier this year, and the giant sting ray.

That four of these fish were caught and tagged in a single day is likely the “big fish story of the century for the Mekong”, said Brian Eyler, director of the Washington-based Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia Program. He said that seeing them confirms that the annual fish migration was still robust despite all the pressures facing the environment along the Mekong.

“Hopefully what happened this week will show the Mekong countries and the world that the Mekong’s mighty fish population is uniquely special and needs to be conserved,” he said.

Threats to endangered aquatic species

Besides overfishing and plastic pollution, the Mekong River Basin has been degraded by upstream dams and climate change, which have had a major impact on water levels in the critically endangered catfish’s aquatic home.

According to WWF, threats to the Mekong giant catfish include infrastructure development such as dams that block migration routes.

“Without the ability to move up and down rivers, the fish have fewer opportunities to breed,” WWF says.

Cambodia has placed tough restrictions on fishing in the vast river to try and reduce the number of endangered aquatic species killed in nets.

Numbers of Irrawaddy dolphins — which once swam through much of the mighty Mekong — have dwindled despite efforts to preserve them.

In 2022, Cambodian fishermen got a shock when they inadvertently hooked an endangered giant freshwater stingray four metres (13 feet) long and weighing 180 kilos.

Over the past 25 years, the CFA and researchers tagged and released around 100 giant catfish as part of a conservation program that encourages fishermen to report catches of rare species.

Conservationists said the recent giant catfish catches mark “a new era of conservation” and “new hope for the survival of a species that has become increasingly rare in much of its native habitat”.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.

Bolivia’s former anti-narcotics chief was extradited to the United States on Thursday to face federal drug trafficking charges in a New York court.

Authorities said that Maximiliano Dávila, who served as anti-narcotics chief in the final months of Evo Morales ‘ 2006-2019 administration, helped facilitate planeload shipments of cocaine to the United States. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Dávila exploited his position “to secure access to Bolivian airfields for cocaine transport and to arrange for members of Bolivian law enforcement under his command—including individuals armed with machineguns—to provide protection for those drug loads.”

Dávila  — who authorities say is also known as “Macho” — boarded a private jet sent from the U.S. specifically for his extradition.

On Feb. 2, 2022, the U.S. State Department announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Dávila’s conviction. He is charged with conspiring to provide top level protection for cocaine shipments to the U.S. as well as related weapons charges involving the possession of machine guns. According to the State Department, Dávila “allegedly used his position to safeguard aircraft used to transport cocaine to third countries, for subsequent distribution in the United States.”

In late November, Bolivia’s Supreme Court approved Dávila’s immediate extradition to the U.S. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Morales expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from Bolivia in 2008, accusing it of plotting to overthrow his government at a time rising commodity prices and a wave of leftist politics throughout South America were challenging longstanding U.S. influence in the region. Meanwhile, the two countries haven’t exchanged ambassadors in more than 15 years.

The drug investigation that led to the charges against Dávila was started by the DEA’s Special Operations Division in 2017, according to court records.

As part of the probe, criminal informants working under the DEA’s direction recorded conversations in which a co-defendant of Dávila bragged of having access to an MD-11 military cargo plane to transport 60 tons of cocaine into the U.S.

The co-defendant, Percy Vasquez-Drew, said that “he and other traffickers had been able to operate with impunity in Bolivia because the DEA and the CIA had been kicked out” and remaining anti-drug officials in the country were easily bribed, prosecutors said in court filings.

Vasquez-Drew was later arrested in Panama on a U.S. warrant. He pleaded guilty in 2020 to a single count of conspiring to smuggle more than 450 kilograms of narcotics into the U.S. Earlier this year, his sentence was reduced to 100 months in federal prison.

Bolivia is the world’s third-largest producer of cocaine.

It’s unclear how close Dávila is to Morales, a former coca grower. But the two appeared together in an October 2019 photograph celebrating Morales’ birthday standing next to several cakes decorated with coca leaves. Also in the picture was the former head of Bolivia’s national police.

While the DEA has arrested numerous Bolivian drug traffickers over the years, including one of Dávila’s predecessors, Morales himself has never been accused of drug trafficking. He has vociferously denounced the U.S.-led drug war in Latin America and defended traditional uses of coca – the raw ingredient of cocaine.

Get ready for the final full moon of 2024: the Cold Moon. 

December’s full moon will reach peak illumination at 4:02 a.m. EST on Sunday Dec. 15, but it will appear full for several days. The Old Farmer’s Almanac details specific moonrise times for different ZIP codes across the U.S. 

Why is the December full moon called the Cold Moon?

December’s full moon is called the Cold Moon, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. The name was chosen because of how cold it usually is during December’s full moon.

The moon also has several other nicknames, including the Long Night Moon, a name with Mohican origins, according to the Farmer’s Almanac. The name is because December’s full moon happens on one of the longest nights of the year. 

Other names for December’s moon include the Drift Clearing Moon, the Frost Exploding Trees Moon, the Moon of the Popping Trees, Hoar Frost Moon, Snow Moon and Winter Maker Moon, according to the almanac.

How long will December’s moon be full?

While the moon reaches peak illumination early on Dec. 15, it will appear full for several days. Around 95% of the moon’s nearside will be illuminated by the sun on Friday, Dec. 13, according to NASA. On Dec. 14, 99% of the moon’s nearside will be illuminated, with 100% illuminated on Dec. 15. On Dec. 16, 98% of the moon will still be illuminated.

This month, NASA also suggests keeping an eye out for Jupiter, sitting between the nearly full moon and Aldebaran, the brightest star in the Taurus constellation, on Dec. 14.

NASA says you won’t need binoculars or a telescope to enjoy the view of the Cold Moon. Local forecasts have detailed information on how clear the night sky will be in different locations where people are keeping an eye out for the moon.

The first full moon of 2025 will be on Monday, Jan. 13. It’s known as the Wolf Moon.