Phnom Penh Post
17 March 2015
As the Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin population steadily declines, conservation groups have voiced concern that the critically endangered species may be swimming toward extinction if drastic measures are not soon taken to protect them.
The numbers tell a depressing tale: From 2011 to 2014, 23 dolphins were recorded dead. But, already, in the first months of 2015, four more have perished.
“In just [the first] three-and-a-half months of 2015, four dolphins have died … that is a very worrying sign,” WWF-Cambodia country director Chhit Sam Ath told reporters in Phnom Penh yesterday. “This must remind all stakeholders to help prevent [this].”
WWF estimates that only 85 Irrawady dolphins remain in the wild.
According to Sam Ath, old age, fishing nets and changes in their ecosystem are driving the dolphin’s population down.
This year, out of the four recorded dead, two dolphins died of old age, while the other two died trapped in fishing nets.
But though he considers fishing nets relatively easy to handle, fighting both natural and unnatural changes to the Kingdom’s waterways may prove much harder to overcome, Sam Ath said.
“These are the main problems we must solve together,” he said. “Net-catching, we can handle, but the other issues may be difficult to tackle,” he said, adding that the upcoming dry season presents a particularly difficult challenge.