Khmer Times —
Fishes that migrate between fresh and marine waters are known as diadromous species. They are among the most vulnerable species to river infrastructure development. These fishes need to move between fresh water and the sea to complete their lifecycles, so barriers to migration can block access to critical habitats. The Lower Mekong Basin is undergoing an unprecedented boom in river development, with many dams and irrigation schemes being installed. General patterns of fish migration are known in the basin. But there’s been relatively little information on diadromous fish migration so the impacts of river development on their populations are probably underestimated.
This has now changed, thanks to a study led by biologist of the Fisheries, Ecology and Aquatic Resources Division of the Research Institute for Aquaculture No 2 in Ho Chi Minh City which is part of the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vu Vi An. An and his colleagues reviewed information for over one thousand Mekong fish species including from the Mekong River Commission’s fish database. They found that diadromy is likely to be a more common life history trait in the Lower Mekong than previously suspected.