The Sun

by Jamie Pyatt

BRITISH angler Ian Welch has landed a world record with this monster – a giant stingray which is the biggest freshwater fish ever caught using a rod and line.

Ian hooked the FIFTY FIVE STONE beast – which nearly pulled him over the side of the boat several times during a 90 MINUTE battle – before he landed it.

It took THIRTEEN grown men to heave the fish – which is the size of a garden shed – out of the water.

Weighing 771lbs it smashed the previous record of 646lbs for a huge catfish caught in 2005.

Ian, a freshwater biologist, had been visiting Thailand to help with a stingray tagging programme when he hooked the denizen of the deep on the Maeklong River.

Dragged

The 45-year-old nearly disappeared over the side of the fishing boat when the specimen took his bait, which was a snakehead fish.

He said: “It dragged me across the boat and would have pulled me in had my colleague not grabbed my trousers – it was like the whole earth had just moved.

“I knew it was going to be a big one.

“It buried itself on the bottom and the main fight was trying to get it off the floor.

“I tried with every ounce of power but it just would not budge.

“After half an hour my arms began shaking and after an hour my legs went.

“Another 30 minutes went by and then I put a glove on and physically pulled the line with gritted teeth and somehow I found the reserves to shift the fish.”

Once the stingray was off the bottom 11.5 stone Ian, from Aldershot, Hants, managed to lift it 30ft to the surface relatively easily.

He said: “As soon as we saw it there was just silence because everyone was just in awe of this thing.

“That line from the film Jaws came to mind about needing a bigger boat because we had to get it to the shore to tag it.”

The group managed to put a 12ft wide net under the fish and towed it to the bank where it was weighed on a giant set of industrial scales used in the tagging programme.

Ian added: “It took 13 people to lift it into a large paddling pool we had set up in order to tag it and take DNA samples

“I was absolutely exhausted afterwards and did very little for the rest of the day and just celebrated it with a cold beer.”

Its body was 7ft long and 7ft wide its tail measured 10ft and its lethal venomous barb had to be wrapped in cloth while it was out of the water.

The giant freshwater stingray is listed as a vulnerable species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list.

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In Documentary Short Category, the Oscar goes to…Smile Pinki, a film about the Smile Train.

Trailer:

-Andy Monsters

-Andy Monsters

-Andy Monsters

-Andy Monsters

Shaq’s Entrance at the NBA All Star 2009:

-Andy Monsters

-Andy Monsters

The Boston Globe:

In 1968, a white firefighter saved a black baby girl, touching the heart of a divided city. The two did not meet again. Until yesterday.

A Mattapan woman finally gets to say thanks to the firefighter who rescued her in 1968.

-Andy Monsters

-Andy Monsters

Author Unknown

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.  One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs.  His bed was next to the room’s only window.  The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.  The men talked for hours on end.  They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.  And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.  The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake.  Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color of the rainbow.  Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.  One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.  Although the other man couldn’t hear the band he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Then unexpectedly, a sinister thought entered his mind.  Why should the other man alone experience all the pleasures of seeing everything while he himself never got to see anything?  It didn’t seem fair.  At first thought the man felt ashamed.  But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sights, his envy eroded into resentment and soon turned him sour.  He began to brood and he found himself unable to sleep.  He should be by that window — that thought, and only that thought now controlled his life.

Late one night as he lay staring at the ceiling, the man by the window began to cough.  He was choking on the fluid in his lungs.  The other man watched in the dimly lit room as the struggling man by the window groped for the button to call for help.  Listening from across the room he never moved, never pushed his own button which would have brought the nurse running in.  In less than five minutes the coughing and choking stopped, along with that the sound of breathing.

Now there was only silence-deathly silence.  The following morning the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths.  When she found the lifeless body of the man by the window, she was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take it away.  As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window.  The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world outside.  Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself.  He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.  It faced a blank wall.

The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate since he had described such wonderful things outside this window.  The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.  She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

Epilogue. . . .

You can interpret the story in any way you like.  But one moral stands out:  There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations.  Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled. If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can’t buy.

-Andy Monsters

-Andy Monsters

-Andy Monsters

-Andy Monsters