Tim Matthews is one of my best friends, and also - coincidentally - one of the most controversial figures in contemporary forteana. He has been involved with the CFZ for nearly a decade now, raising eyebrows wherever he goes. I am always surprised at the relative ease with which some scientists, no matter how small their budget, continue to make amazing discoveries. Whilst watching a National Geographic documentary featuring Biologist Dr. Zeb Hogan (1) I was impressed not only by the man’s obvious dedication to his work but by his sheer enthusiasm and hands on approach to his quest to find legendary huge Stingrays - said by seemingly credible locals living along the Mekong Delta in Cambodia to be up to eight metres in length - and oversized catfish in the river. These had also been seen and reported by locals, the sorts of people who scientists would, until recently, not have taken much notice of.
It seems that Gerald Durrell was correct in his introduction to Heuvelman’s On The Track where he argued that by ignoring locally produced evidence for Cryptids we are missing the best evidence for their existence, location and modus operandi.
Despite Hogan’s obvious suitability for the role of Discover General - and his obvious similarity in style to Dr Mark Van Roosmalen - he is not doing anything that we couldn’t do. He spoke to locals, engaged with them, visiteda local market, spoke to fishermen and built up the best picture he could locally. True, finding a village where the local delicacy was the Tarantula was somewhat disturbing (!) but he took it all in his stride, even when several of the beasties decided to go for a walk all over him!
His simple approach seems to have paid off. He had a small team, a local translator, one camera (by the look and feel of the programme) and a limited budget. (I am reliably informed that the budget for such productions often comes in at less than $25,000 from cradle to grave and this from a Hollywood film producer colleague of mine for whom I have worked in the recent past.) Within a few days, Hogan was up to his neck in the Mekong’s waters fighting a giant catfish in a net, caught by local fisherman in a stationary bag net. This megafish was indeed huge weighing some 500 pounds (230 kilos) and was later released. (The largest of these was captured in 2005 and weighed 646 pounds!)
Not to be outdone, Hogan has also gone after the Giant Stingray and I am fascinated to learn that these, the largest freshwater fish in the world, are elusive, cloaked in mystery and that little is known about them. Indeed, they have only been studied in any detail for around the last 20 years. Their natural habitats in Cambodia, Thailand, Borneo, New Guinea and Northern Australia have been degraded by harmful human activity in recent times and that’s another reason for Hogan’s project to hunt them. Some reports put these mega fish at a length of 16.5 ft (5 metres) and a weight of 1320 pounds (600 kilos). They’re dangerous too, with poisonous barbs that can severely wound a victim.
In April 2008, Hogan hit pay dirt when he, with a group of local fishermen located a Giant Stingray of 4.3 metres in length near the Thai city of Chachoengsao along the river Bang Pakong. Remarkably, the ray had just given birth and its offspring was found clinging to its mother’s back.
These examples suggest to me that although time is perhaps short for some of these vulnerable species, they are there to be seen if we plan effectively and use the best local knowledge available. It should also go some way to silencing the negativists who claim that there is nothing new to be found because if Hogan can do it from his position within the scientific mainstream we understand that he is not using magic, but basic science combined with common sense and, perhaps, a little bit of luck.
The game is still afoot……
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(1) Hogan now leads a new National Geographic Society project to identify and protect the world's largest freshwater fishes.
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