Mekong’s Irrawaddy dolphins find cautious hope amid a river in crisis

The Mekong River's Irrawaddy dolphin population in Cambodia has fallen from roughly 200 in the late 1990s to just over 100 today, driven by gillnet entanglement, electrofishing, and habitat disruption from more than 160 dams along the river system. The dolphins survive mainly in deep pools like Kampi, where tourism built around dolphin-watching has become a local income source even as the species disappears from most of its historic range.

Conservation zones established in 2012 ban gillnets within a 180-kilometer stretch, and river guards confiscated tens of thousands of meters of illegal nets in 2022 alone. Those same guards earn $5 to $7.50 a day, use their own boats, and pay for their own meals, while facing fishers who sometimes carry weapons.

Researchers say the dolphins hold economic, cultural, and spiritual weight for communities along the river, and their fate is tied to broader decisions about damming and fishing enforcement that remain unresolved.

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