{"id":177685,"date":"2025-11-13T02:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/177685\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T02:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:18:13","slug":"hong-kong-hooked-as-endangered-stingray-fished-out-of-victoria-harbour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/177685\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong hooked as endangered stingray fished out of Victoria Harbour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A stingray that an angler unexpectedly caught in Hong Kong\u2019s Victoria Harbour earlier this week is believed to be an endangered species, with Ocean Park saying the marine animal is likely to have entered local waters by mistake.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A video went viral on social media this week showing the moment a large ray, commonly referred to in Chinese as a \u201cdevil fish\u201d, was hooked and seen struggling near the waterfront in Shau Kei Wan.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The footage showed the fish\u2019s distinct flat, disc-shaped body and long tail as it thrashed against the fishing line, attracting a crowd of onlookers along the waterfront.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Ocean Park told the Post on Wednesday that the animal in the video appeared to be a longhead eagle ray, also known as Aetobatus flagellum, which is classified as \u201cendangered\u201d on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThis species is not commonly found in Victoria Harbour. Ocean Park\u2019s marine animal experts believe that the ray likely entered the harbour accidentally,\u201d a park spokesman said. \u201cOcean Park strongly advises the public to release any such animal immediately if caught.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The medium-sized ray, usually found in estuarine waters of the Indo-West Pacific, is vulnerable to accidental capture by commercial fishing and has limited reproductive potential, producing only small litters, according to the IUCN.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The stingray is believed to have escaped on its own. Photo: Handout\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/7504ede0-f16b-4693-aad0-41513b6c345e_91f99550.jpg\" title=\"The stingray is believed to have escaped on its own. Photo: Handout\"\/>The stingray is believed to have escaped on its own. Photo: Handout<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A stingray that an angler unexpectedly caught in Hong Kong\u2019s Victoria Harbour earlier this week is believed to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[100721,100720,18,440,4202,19,70423,17,100724,100723,133,100725,21158,100722],"class_list":{"0":"post-177685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-aetobatus-flagellum","9":"tag-brydes-whale","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-hong-kong","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-international-union-for-conservation-of-nature-iucn","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-ocean-park","17":"tag-sai-kung","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-shau-kei-wan","20":"tag-threads","21":"tag-victoria-harbour"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115539994899303118","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}