A school of about 20 Irrawaddy dolphins has been sighted around the BaLua Archipelago in the protected Kien Giang Biosphere Reserve, thesouthern province of Kien Giang.
The population wasdiscovered by a group of six researchers from the Centre forBiodiversity and Development run by the Institute of Tropical Biologyand HCM City University of Natural Sciences.
Vu Long, oneof the researchers, said the number of dolphins sighted was larger thanschools in the Malampaya Channel in the Philippines and the MekongRiver, where populations of between seven and 10 were sighted.
Little research on the Irrawaddy dolphin has been conducted in Vietnamand they are not listed in the country's Red Book of endangered species,Long said.
On Jan.12, the researchers will travel toThailand to work with the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN) to work out a detailed plant to protect the dolphins, he said.
In the meantime, researchers have joined hands with local fishermen totrack the population of dolphins in the Ba Lua Archipelago.
Five populations of Irrawaddy dolphin, whose scientific name isOrcaella brevirotis, were thought to be living in Vietnamese waters.
The IUCN lists the dolphin in its Red book of vulnerable species. /.
The population wasdiscovered by a group of six researchers from the Centre forBiodiversity and Development run by the Institute of Tropical Biologyand HCM City University of Natural Sciences.
Vu Long, oneof the researchers, said the number of dolphins sighted was larger thanschools in the Malampaya Channel in the Philippines and the MekongRiver, where populations of between seven and 10 were sighted.
Little research on the Irrawaddy dolphin has been conducted in Vietnamand they are not listed in the country's Red Book of endangered species,Long said.
On Jan.12, the researchers will travel toThailand to work with the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN) to work out a detailed plant to protect the dolphins, he said.
In the meantime, researchers have joined hands with local fishermen totrack the population of dolphins in the Ba Lua Archipelago.
Five populations of Irrawaddy dolphin, whose scientific name isOrcaella brevirotis, were thought to be living in Vietnamese waters.
The IUCN lists the dolphin in its Red book of vulnerable species. /.
