14 DAY TRIAL // Dolphins in the waters of the Mekong River are nearing extinction, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has recently announced. The results of an on-site investigation have unveiled the fact that only about 80 individuals still endure in the waters of the heavily polluted river, which is the tenth largest in the world, and the seventh largest in Asia. It passes through China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, and all these countries spill vast amounts of pollutants in it every year. Additionally, the animals living here are threatened with extinction from both pollution and extensive overfishing.
Among the main culprits for the devastating condition the dolphins find themselves in are mercury and pesticides. Deadly concentrations of the chemicals have been found in more than 50 young dolphins, whose bodies have been recovered since 2003, the BBC News reports. The WWF figures report that only 64 to 76 Irrawaddy dolphins still exist in the entire river, a dramatic decrease from only a few decades ago.
“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 explained in a press statement.
WWF experts also said that the largest number of deaths was recorded among calves that were less than two weeks old (more than 60 percent of the 88 recorded deaths over the past six years). “Necropsy analysis identified a bacterial disease as the cause of the calf deaths. This disease would not be fatal unless the dolphin's immune systems were suppressed, as they were in these cases, by environmental contaminants,” Dove added in the organization's report.
“A trans-boundary preventative health program is urgently needed to manage the disease affected animals in order to reduce the number of deaths each year,” WWF Cambodia Country Director Seng Teak urged. Officials from the group added that a trans-national cooperative initiative, to which all the countries through which the Mekong flowed would adhere, was the only solution to stop the sharp decline in dolphin populations. This would ensure that the species does not go extinct within the next few years.