Pollution in Southeast Asia’s Mekong River has pushed freshwater dolphins in Cambodia and Laos to the brink of extinction, an international conservation group said yesterday.
The World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) said only 64 to 76 Irrawaddy dolphins remain in the Mekong after toxic levels of pesticides, mercury and other pollutants were found in more than 50 calves who have died since 2003.
“These pollutants are widely distributed in the environment and so the source of this pollution may involve several countries through which the Mekong River flows,” WWF veterinary surgeon Verne Dove said in a press statement.
PHOTO: AFP
The organization said it was investigating how environmental contaminants got into the Mekong, which flows through Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.
The WWF said it suspected that high levels of mercury found in some dead dolphins came from gold mining activities.
It added that Irrawaddy dolphins in Cambodia and Laos urgently needed a health program to counter the effects of pollution on their immune systems.
Inbreeding among the small population could have also contributed to weakened immune systems of the young dead dolphins, all of whom were under two weeks old.
“The Mekong River dolphins are isolated from other members of their species and they need our help,” WWF Cambodia country director Seng Teak said, adding that the mammals “can show remarkable resilience” if their habitat is protected.
The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin, which inhabits a 190km stretch in Cambodia and Laos, has been listed as critically endangered since 2004, the WWF said.
Thousands of Irrawaddy dolphins once swam in the Mekong. Although regarded as sacred in Cambodia and Laos, their numbers were cut by illegal fishing nets and Cambodia’s drawn-out civil conflict, in which dolphin blubber was used to lubricate machine parts and fuel lamps.
The Cambodian government, however, has been promoting dolphin-watching to attract ecotourism and cracked down on the use of illegal nets that entangled them.
It was hoped that banning fishing nets in dolphins’ protected areas would raise their number to 170 within the next few years.
The Mekong is one of only five freshwater habitats in the world for the Irrawaddy dolphin, and Cambodia was thought to support its largest remaining population.
With their pale grey skin and blunt beaks, Irrawaddy dolphins resemble porpoises more than their sea-going cousins, and congregate in a handful of the Mekong’s natural deep-water pools.
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
‘ARBITRARY’ CASE: Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila has maintained his innocence and called the country’s courts an instrument of oppression Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said. Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence. He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said. Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the
RSS