Kung Pao Nessie Department

Well, maybe Nessie isn't dead (errm, you know... because of global warming... or something), maybe she's just moved to China!

The article is worth checking out for the illustration alone.

They theorize it might just be a "taimen trout" by which I believe they mean the same thing as a Hucho Taimen* (pictured below):


This could also have a bit to do with a lot of traditional folklore regarding the fish in the region, Thomas Roche's blog entry from February has a little more on that and a link to an article from the UK's Times Online.

And of course there was a 2005 exploration of the Kansai region by Chinese researchers to look into reports of giant fish. China Daily had the scoop on that.

* A little more research has made it very unclear to me as to whether Hucho Taimen is a trout or a salmon, in particular, are there two different fishes or is it the same creature and just sometimes mislabeled and if so which genus is correct? If anybody knows, please get in touch with me!