By Robert Carmichael Monsters and critics
Feb 29, 2012,
Phnom Penh - The Cambodian government said Wednesday it was establishing a 180-kilometre-long conservation area on the Mekong River to protect the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin (pictured).
Touch Seang Tana, the government's specialist on the fresh-water dolphins, said the zone would extend from the Laos border to the town of Kratie in north-eastern Cambodia, and should be enshrined in law by April.
Touch said fine mesh nets, known as gill nets, would be banned from the area, since the dolphins have in the past become trapped in them and drowned.
'And there will be no floating houses, because they might put gill nets under those, and there can be no floating fish cages in that area,' he said.
'But we are not (overly) restricting what people can do in the protected area. Boats can pass, people can take products to market and also they can fish.'
In August the environmental group WWF warned that if the government did not act urgently to conserve the mammals, the dolphin population was 'at high risk of extinction.'
At the time WWF estimated there were only 85 Irrawaddy dolphins still alive in Cambodia, most of them in the north-east, and called for a conservation area and a ban on gill nets. It also warned that the survival rate of dolphin calves was 'very low.'
A WWF technical report dated April 2009 found high levels of chemical pollutants including the pesticide DDT and mercury in dolphin carcasses.
Irrawaddy dolphins, which are protected under Cambodian law, are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of the most threatened species on the planet.
Touch, who heads the Commission for Mekong River Dolphin Conservation and Ecotourism Development, said there were thought to be between 85 and 180 dolphins left. He said a formal count over the next three years should provide a more precise figure.
The Irrawaddy dolphins, or Orcaella brevirostris, have become an increasingly popular drawcard for visitors to the remote north-east. Touch said 50,000 domestic tourists and 15,000 foreign tourists visited Kratie in 2011 to see the dolphins.
Feb 29, 2012,
Phnom Penh - The Cambodian government said Wednesday it was establishing a 180-kilometre-long conservation area on the Mekong River to protect the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin (pictured).
Touch Seang Tana, the government's specialist on the fresh-water dolphins, said the zone would extend from the Laos border to the town of Kratie in north-eastern Cambodia, and should be enshrined in law by April.
Touch said fine mesh nets, known as gill nets, would be banned from the area, since the dolphins have in the past become trapped in them and drowned.
'And there will be no floating houses, because they might put gill nets under those, and there can be no floating fish cages in that area,' he said.
'But we are not (overly) restricting what people can do in the protected area. Boats can pass, people can take products to market and also they can fish.'
In August the environmental group WWF warned that if the government did not act urgently to conserve the mammals, the dolphin population was 'at high risk of extinction.'
At the time WWF estimated there were only 85 Irrawaddy dolphins still alive in Cambodia, most of them in the north-east, and called for a conservation area and a ban on gill nets. It also warned that the survival rate of dolphin calves was 'very low.'
A WWF technical report dated April 2009 found high levels of chemical pollutants including the pesticide DDT and mercury in dolphin carcasses.
Irrawaddy dolphins, which are protected under Cambodian law, are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of the most threatened species on the planet.
Touch, who heads the Commission for Mekong River Dolphin Conservation and Ecotourism Development, said there were thought to be between 85 and 180 dolphins left. He said a formal count over the next three years should provide a more precise figure.
The Irrawaddy dolphins, or Orcaella brevirostris, have become an increasingly popular drawcard for visitors to the remote north-east. Touch said 50,000 domestic tourists and 15,000 foreign tourists visited Kratie in 2011 to see the dolphins.
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