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Polluted water endangers Mekong dolphins: WWF
http://in.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idINTRE55H1AR20090618?sp=true
PHNOM PENH (Reuters Life!) - Toxic waste in the Mekong River is a
factor pushing an endangered dolphin species to extinction, the WWF
warned on Thursday, estimating there were less than 80 left in a
stretch of water between Cambodia and Laos.
Conservation group the World Wildlife for Nature (WWF) said high
levels of mercury and other pollutants had caused the deaths of 88
Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphins since 2003, over 60 percent of them
calves under two weeks old.
Bacterial disease killed many of the calves, it said.
"This disease would not be fatal unless the dolphin's immune systems
were suppressed, as they were in these cases, by environmental
contaminants," said Verne Dove, a veterinarian with WWF Cambodia, in a
statement.
"Pollution in the Mekong River has pushed the local population of
Irrawaddy dolphins to the brink of extinction," the conservation group
said, estimating the number left in the 190 km (118 mile) stretch of
the Mekong at between 64 and 76.
The WWF said limited genetic diversity due to inbreeding was another
factor in the deaths of the Mekong dolphins, which were isolated from
other members of the species.
However, one Cambodian specialist, Touch Seang Tana, who heads a group
called Mekong River Dolphins Conservation, denied the animal was in
danger of extinction and estimated there were 150 in Cambodia.
"How come the dolphin is on the brink of extinction when the animals
give birth to more than 10 calves a year?" Seang Tana told Reuters.
He said an estimated 1,000 lived in Asia, including in India, Myanmar
and Thailand.
The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin is listed as a critically
endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of
Nature.
The WWF researchers also warned that pollutants found in the Mekong
water could affect the health of millions of humans who rely on
resources from the river.
The Mekong produces an estimated 2.5 million tons of fish per year,
with a value of at least US$2 billion, making it the world's largest
inland fishery, the WWF said. |
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