Continued efforts to preserve dolphins

The latter is being carried out in areas of the Ayeyarwaddy River to help the conservation of endangered freshwater dolphins, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Carp fingerlings and other species have already been introduced to the area where dolphins used to be found in the Ayeyarwaddy River over February, March and April. Sightings of the freshwater mammals are very rare these days. 

“In these days, dolphins are gradually hard to find because of undisciplined fishing in the preserving area. Fish species are endangered due to illegally fishing such as electric shocking method, and by using very small fishing nets,” said Han Win, from the Department of Environmental Conservation.

The programme is introducing suitable fish species to increase dolphin breeding ahead of the monsoon season. When the fish reach three or five inches or at the end of the rainy season, they will be moved to the dolphin preservation area. 

Irrawaddy dolphins are found in a small number in along the coastal areas in South and Southeast Asia. They are now living in three rivers: the Ayeyarwady (Myanmar), the Mahakam (Indonesian Borneo) and the Mekong, which covers Indonesia, India, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. 

The number has been decreasingly sharply in the past years. The primary cause for the declining population is being blamed largely on human activity. Dolphins face increasing threats, including entanglement in fishing nets, fishing through electric shock with batteries and other irregular fishing methods.

The situation looks grave in Myanmar. 

Khin Maung Aye, Deputy Minister for Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development, said in September 2013 that the dolphin population in the nation was only about 70. A conservation group found only 22 in the Ayeyarwaddy Dolphin Conservation Area in 2012. 

“When we took a survey between Mandalay and Bhamo, we counted 72 dolphins in 2004. There were 63 dolphins left after 2004. Although new babies were born, the number of them was not enough to compensate for the losses. We recorded 37 dolphins between Shew Ku and Thapakekyin in 2012, and only 27 dolphins in 2013. In this year’s study we counted 28,” Han Win, chief of the Ayeyarwaddy conservation group.

In the dolphin study tour conducted in January, the explorers found six baby dolphins: one near Butaung village; three in Moetar, Natinn and Kyaukmaw villages; and two in Sin Kyun and Kong Tan Gyi.

According to WCS, along the Ayeyarwaddy River, the dolphins are known to fish cooperatively with humans, herding fish schools toward the fishermen where they are easily caught in cast nets. The practice benefits the fishermen - increasing the size of their catches up to threefold - as well as the dolphins, which fill their own stomachs on the cornered fish and those that fall out of the fishing nets.

The Myanmar government established the Irrawaddy Dolphin Protected Area in 2005, which stretches over 74 kilomtres of the Ayeyarwaddy River, between Mingun and Kyaukmyaung towns. A deal with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) was struck last year, to launch a second five-year plan to save the dolphins. This is among regional attempts to save the species. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), there are only 85 Irrawaddy dolphins left in the Mekong River. 

Conservationists and critics have warned that Laos’ plan to build Don Sahong dam near the border with Cambodia could also endanger the dolphin population in Cambodia.