IUCN – SSC Cetacean Specialist Group

Irrawaddy Dolphins

IUCN – SSC Cetacean Specialist Group / Irrawaddy Dolphins
19 Mar 2022

Last Mekong dolphin in the Cambodia-Laos transboundary pool dies

  The most recent of the seven news items on this website concerning the Critically Endangered population of Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) in the Mekong River was posted almost exactly four years ago. Since that time, the information on this population in the Focal Taxa section...

06 Dec 2018

35 Updated Cetacean Red List Assessments published in Nov 2018

  Assessments or reassessments of 35 cetacean species, subspecies or populations were published on the IUCN Red List in November 2018. This is in addition to the 10 new assessments published in July 2018, and 19 published in November 2017. The updated assessments included a number of...

02 Oct 2017

Update on Mekong River dams and river dolphins

  As mentioned in an article posted on this website on 8 February 2017, the construction of large dams in the mainstem of the Mekong River in Laos and Cambodia represents an existential threat to the small, Critically Endangered freshwater population of Orcaella brevirostris. Following the...

08 Feb 2017

Progress protecting Mekong River dolphins undermined by proposed dams

[caption id="attachment_2377" align="alignright" width="229"] Somany Phay, Frances Gulland, and H.E. Srun Limsong, Deputy Director General of the Fisheries Administration, Royal Government of Cambodia. Photo Credit: Peter Thomas[/caption]   In January 2017 an international workshop on the Critically Endangered freshwater population of dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) in the Mekong...

12 Jun 2016

Five Irrawaddy dolphins rescued by local stranding network

  Petch Manopawitr, Deputy Head of IUCN Southeast Asia Group and Director of the IUCN Thailand/Cambodia Transborder Coastal Dolphin Project shared a video link of five Irrawaddy dolphins that became stranded on 5 May 2016 behind a bamboo fence built to prevent erosion at Krasakao Village...

17 May 2016

Mekong River dolphin update

  Since the last news report on this website regarding Mekong River dolphins (posted 3 July 2014), the WWF-Cambodia team based in Kratie, working in collaboration with the Fisheries Department in Phnom Penh, have continued their valiant efforts to conserve and study this small, Critically Endangered...

12 Sep 2014

Irrawaddy dolphins (Pesut) in Indonesia’s Mahakam River

  At the chairman’s request, CSG member Danielle Kreb provided the following summary. One of the three Critically Endangered freshwater populations of Irrawaddy dolphins, Orcaella brevirostris, inhabits the Mahakam River, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Analysis of tissues samples from 8 individuals indicated that this population has two unique...

03 Jul 2014

Update on Mekong and Ayeyarwady Irrawaddy dolphin conservation

  With support of the CSG, further steps were taken recently toward the conservation of two of Asia’s three riverine populations of Irrawaddy dolphins Orcaella brevirostris: in the Mekong of Cambodia and Laos and in the Ayeyarwady of Myanmar.   Mekong River Irrawaddy Dolphins The critically endangered Mekong River...