Do Not Mess With Fish 20

and you thought fish were fun, well in this case expensive! This is a story of good and bad luck, one which begs the question, would you want to know? Three anglers rightly felt lucky when they caught a gigantic rare fish. Specifically, it was a Chinese Bahaba, or giant yellow croaker (Bahaba taipingensis). One, a housewife named Mickey - fought the rare and much sought after - five and one half foot fish for 90 minute before the struggle ended. Quick to sell their treasure - believed to be the largest caught in Hong Kong in 10 years - they thought they'd hit the jackpot selling it for $2,560 to a local fisherman. I hope they know nothing of the further travels of Mr. Croaker. From the fisherman, it went to a seafood restaurant for $580,000, but that isn't the end of this fish story. It was re-sold to a mainland Chinese fish buyer for over a million dollars. So fond are people of the costly swim bladder alone, that the gigantic fish has been fished nearly to extinction. No commentary was forthcoming from the plucky three who initially ruined the day of one croaker and made someone else very rich.

Another couple of stories about this rare fish,

A Zhejiang based fisherman netted a rare Chinese bahaba whose air bladder is said to be as expensive as gold in weight. It was last seen almost 50 years back. It is dark brown all over, 1.2-meter long and 15-kg in weight. Even the most experienced fisherman was astonished to see a fish like this. The Chinese Bahaba found earlier was 3.5 kg and worth 1million USD. Li, who found the fist approached an aquatic research institution expert the next day after finding the fish, who uttered the appearance should tell it's a Chinese bahaba but, still, a dissection is needed to make sure it is not another species similar to Chinese bahaba. Li declined the expert's suggestion in fear that it would ruin the fish and lower the selling price. He also turned down a fish vendor's offer of 500,000 for this queer fish, making it clear he would not let it go for less than 1 million. In April 2007, a fisherman in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong province, netted a 49-kg Chinese bahaba and sold to a restaurant owner for 580,000 yuan. The restaurant cooked the fish meat but has kept the dried maw since, tagging it at 2 million yuan with words "not for sale”. Now that is surprising!