Freshwater Dolphins

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...

A new article regarding the work and challenges facing the Cetacean Specialist Group, written by Dr Randall Reeves, the groups Chair, was recently published by IUCN. You can read it at the following link: https://www.iucncongress2020.org/newsroom/all-news/cetacean-conservation-worlds-rivers-lakes-and-oceans...

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...

Indus River dolphins (Platanista gangetica minor) inhabit the Indus River system of Pakistan and India.  Over the last 150 years, numerous irrigation barrages (gated dams) that divert river water into canals have been constructed in this system.  As a result, the range of Indus dolphins...

[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...

It has been known for some time that fishermen have been killing freshwater dolphins in the Amazon and using them as bait for catfish (Mintzer et al. 2013; Iriarte & Marmontel 2013; Brum et al. 2015).  A recent report from Brazil found that following the...

Provided by Professor Wang Ding on 8 December 2015 While ex situ conservation has been seen as an important strategy for endangered terrestrial animals, it is still controversial for cetaceans. The Critically Endangered Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis) is the only freshwater porpoise population in...