The Cambodia Daily
15 August, 2013
An Irrawaddy dolphin was found dead Wednesday morning tied up in a fishing net and floating in the Mekong River in Kratie province, officials said.
Khieu Kin, chief of Kratie’s provincial fishery administration, said that the 2.03-meter long, 105-kg female dolphin had likely become entangled in the net near Kampi village, a dolphin sanctuary popular with tourists, before floating downstream into a stretch of the Mekong River in Kratie City’s Rokar Kandal commune.
“We have handed the carcass over to the dolphin conservation team in Kratie for a follow-up investigation and to take tissue samples,” Mr. Kin said, adding that a gillnet was tied around the dolphin’s tail fin.
The large, meshed gillnets are a particular threat to dolphins because they are left to drift in the river overnight meaning large fish can become entangled if they swim into the nets.