Pollution drives Mekong dolphins to brink of extinction
Pollution in the Mekong river has pushed freshwater dolphins in Cambodia and Laos to the brink of extinction, the conservation group WWF has said. Only 64 to 76 Irrawaddy dolphins remain in the Mekong, it says, and calls for a cross-border plan to help the dolphins. Toxic levels of pesticides, mercury and other pollutants have been found in more than 50 calves that have died since 2003. The Mekong flows from China through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. “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,” said WWF veterinary surgeon Verne Dove in a press statement. The group said it was investigating how contamination had entered the Mekong river. Since 2003, the dolphin population has suffered 88 deaths, of which more than 60% were calves under two weeks old, it said. “Necropsy analysis identified a bacterial disease as the cause of the calf deaths,” Dr Dove said in the WWF report. “This disease would not be fatal unless the dolphin’s immune systems were suppressed, as they were in these cases, by environmental contaminants,” he said. …
