Mekong River’s declining fish species an ‘urgent wake-up call’ for action, conservationists say

Conservationists have suggested a last-ditch recovery plan to save the “irreplaceable” biodiversity of the Mekong River, as unrelenting dam-building through China and Laos disrupts sediment flow and fish-breeding patterns crucial to keeping scores of endangered fish species from extinction.

The economic value of the Mekong’s fisheries – on which 40 million people depend as it winds more than 4,900km from its source in China into the Vietnam Delta – has also plunged as development decimates the river ecosystem, according to a recent report released by some two dozen conservation organisations led by the non-governmental organisation WWF.

A total of 74 fish species are listed as endangered in the “Mekong’s Forgotten Fisheries and Emergency Plan to Save Them” study. There are 18 fish species in the critically endangered Red List, including the giant catfish and the giant freshwater stingray – the world’s two largest freshwater fish – as well the climbing perch, anabas testudineus, known for its ability to leave the water and “walk” on dry land.

“The alarming decline in fish population in the Mekong is an urgent wake-up call for action to save these extraordinary – and extraordinarily important – species, which underpin not only the region’s societies and economies but also the health of the Mekong’s ecosystem,” said WWF’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Lan Mercado.

The sharp decline in fisheries has largely been attributed by Mekong experts to 12 Chinese dams on the Lancang (the upper Mekong), and two dams downstream in Laos – the Thai-built Xayaburi dam and the Sinohydro construction on behalf of Malaysian developer of Don Sahong, which have drastically damaged the ecosystem.

Fishers in northeastern Thailand’s Mekong provinces,