Cambodia struggles to protect endangered Irrawaddy dolphins

Bulging greyheads break the turbid waters of the Mekong River in Cambodia as a pod of rare Irrawaddy dolphins surfaces to breathe, drawing excited murmurs from tourists watching from nearby boats.

The thrilling sight may soon be no more than a memory, as numbers of the endangered mammals dwindle despite efforts to preserve them.

Cambodia announces tough restrictions

Cambodia has announced tough new restrictions on fishing in the vast river to try and reduce the number of dolphins killed in nets.

But in a country with limited financial resources, it’s a huge challenge to enforce the rules on a river hundreds of metres wide that is dotted with islets and lined with dense undergrowth.

“We fear we cannot protect them,” says river guard Phon Pharong during a patrol searching for illegal gillnets.

Pharong is one of more than 70 guards who patrol a 120-kilometre (75-mile) stretch of the Mekong from northeastern Kratie province to close to the Laos border.

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More guards needed to patrol

Mok Ponlork, a fisheries department official who leads the dolphin conservation guards in Kratie, has 44 people to monitor an 85-kilometre stretch but says to do the job effectively he would need at least 60.

“If we patrol at night, they don’t go. When we return in the daytime, they go in the river,” Pharong said.  

Low wages mean guards are forced to take extra work onshore to support their families, taking them away from patrol duties.

Each guard receives about $65 a month from the government, while WWF funds another $5 for a day of patrolling.

Dolphins killed by pollution

Illegal fishing and plastic waste have killed many, and the dolphins’ habitat has been reduced by upstream dams and climate change, which have had a major impact on water levels in the river.

The population in the Mekong has dwindled from 200, when the first census was taken in 1997, to just 89 in 2020.

Adding to concerns about the Mekong dolphins’ future, around 70 per cent of the population is now too old to breed.

“It’s kind of a worrying sign,” Seng Teak, WWF-Cambodia Country Director, told AFP.

“We do need a lot in order to make sure that this species continues to survive in the Mekong,” he said, calling on the government “to mobilise more resources into dolphin protection”.

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Dolphins becoming extinct

In late February, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a new law creating protection zones in which fishing is banned.

Violators face up to a year in jail for using gillnets and up to five years for electrofishing in the conservation areas.

“If they lay gillnets in the conservation zones, we will arrest them. If they use electrofishing, there is no mercy, they will be arrested and sent to court,” said Ponlork.

So far, the extra push seems to be paying off: there are no more deaths and even a ray of hope.

Many locals who make a living taking tourists to see dolphins or selling related souvenirs are also worried about the mammals’ future.

“If the dolphins are gone, we are over because our income is from dolphins,” said Meas Mary, 53, who makes up to $15 a day running boat trips.

“Before there were a lot of dolphins. Now they are disappearing. I am so worried.”

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