Phnom Penh (VNA) – The sight of Irrawaddy dolphins swimming in theMekong River in Cambodia may soon be no more than a memory, as numbers of theendangered mammals dwindle despite efforts to preserve them.
Cambodia has announcedtough new restrictions on fishing in the vast river to try and reduce thenumber of dolphins killed in nets.
But in a country withlimited financial resources, it's a huge challenge to enforce the rules on ariver hundreds of meters wide dotted with islets and lined with denseundergrowth.
Gillnets - vertical mesh nets left in thewater for long periods - trap fish indiscriminately and are the main cause ofdeath for dolphins in the Mekong, according to conservationists.
The extinction of this dolphin species may alsodirectly affect the livelihoods of many local people in the area, which has attractedlarge numbers of tourists to see the rare dolphins.
In late February,Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a new law creating protection zones inwhich fishing is banned.
Violators face up to ayear in jail for using gillnets and up to five years for electrofishing in theconservation areas.
Irrawaddy dolphins - small, shy creatures with domed foreheads and short beaks- once swam through much of the mighty Mekong. The population in the Mekong hasdwindled from 200, when the first census was taken in 1997, to just 89 in 2020.
In 2016, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) declared the species functionallyextinct after it was found that there were too few potential breeding pairs tosustain the population, as about 70% exceeded the reproductive age.
According to the WWF, besides the MekongRiver, this species lives in only two others - the Ayeyarwady of Myanmarand the Mahakam of Indonesia. Irrawaddy dolphin populations in these threerivers have been redlisted by the International Union for Conservation ofNature (IUCN) as endangered.
In December 2022, Lao authorities announcedthat the Irrawaddy dolphin species was extinct in the country, after the lastone living in a section of the Mekong River, bordering northeastern Cambodiaand Laos, died after being entangled in a fishing net./.
Cambodia has announcedtough new restrictions on fishing in the vast river to try and reduce thenumber of dolphins killed in nets.
But in a country withlimited financial resources, it's a huge challenge to enforce the rules on ariver hundreds of meters wide dotted with islets and lined with denseundergrowth.
Gillnets - vertical mesh nets left in thewater for long periods - trap fish indiscriminately and are the main cause ofdeath for dolphins in the Mekong, according to conservationists.
The extinction of this dolphin species may alsodirectly affect the livelihoods of many local people in the area, which has attractedlarge numbers of tourists to see the rare dolphins.
In late February,Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a new law creating protection zones inwhich fishing is banned.
Violators face up to ayear in jail for using gillnets and up to five years for electrofishing in theconservation areas.
Irrawaddy dolphins - small, shy creatures with domed foreheads and short beaks- once swam through much of the mighty Mekong. The population in the Mekong hasdwindled from 200, when the first census was taken in 1997, to just 89 in 2020.
In 2016, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) declared the species functionallyextinct after it was found that there were too few potential breeding pairs tosustain the population, as about 70% exceeded the reproductive age.
According to the WWF, besides the MekongRiver, this species lives in only two others - the Ayeyarwady of Myanmarand the Mahakam of Indonesia. Irrawaddy dolphin populations in these threerivers have been redlisted by the International Union for Conservation ofNature (IUCN) as endangered.
In December 2022, Lao authorities announcedthat the Irrawaddy dolphin species was extinct in the country, after the lastone living in a section of the Mekong River, bordering northeastern Cambodiaand Laos, died after being entangled in a fishing net./.
VNA
