IUCN – SSC Cetacean Specialist Group

Freshwater Dolphins

IUCN – SSC Cetacean Specialist Group / Freshwater 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...

04 Mar 2020

Cetacean conservation in the world’s rivers, lakes and oceans

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...

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 May 2017

Lost Indus dolphins in the Beas River, India

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...

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...

13 Oct 2016

Amazon River dolphins in Brazil continue to be killed for fish bait

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...

10 Dec 2015

Progress achieved on natural ex situ conservation of the Yangtze finless porpoise

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...