Agriculture and fishing
Fishing, fisheries and aquaculture
Thailand’s rich freshwater biodiversity under threat
The Thai government has taken efforts to tackle climate change by building a large number of water retention projects. But they could threaten the country’s freshwater biodiversity unless new sustainable solutions are taken into consideration. In a remote forest in Thailand’s western Ratchaburi province, a team ...
Pratch Rujivanarom
Mekong dams must release less water in dry season to preserve habitats, experts say
Abnormally high-water levels in the Mekong River at the end of May indicate that dams on the river must release less water during the dry season to protect the ecosystem, experts said at an online panel Monday. Rain levels during the dry season this year have ...
Eugene Whong for RFA
New hope for Mekong ‘megafish’
Weighing in at 661 pounds, a giant stingray hooked by a fisherman in Cambodia’s Mekong River earlier this month has taken the title of world’s largest freshwater fish. Nicknamed “Boramy,” or “full moon” in the Khmer language, the female ray — which was released — raises ...
Vanessa Bauza
Thousands fish for luck in central Vietnam's marsh festival
The Dong Hoa fishing festival, which began dozens of years ago, is a yearly festival celebrated in the fifth month of the lunar calendar at the Vuc Marsh in Xuan Vien Commune, Nghi Xuan District. The marsh spans around a kilometer and is near the Hong ...
Duc Hung
MRC Unveils Technology to Monitor Mekong Water Quality and Fish Migration
With hydrological projects now a daily reality along Southeast Asia’s most important waterway, the Mekong River Commission and its partners have introduced new technology to measure if one large project will have significant impact on the river’s water quality, flow or fish population. At the Don ...
Manyphone Vongphachanh
For Thai fishers facing dwindling catches, a Lao dam looms large
In the rustic old town of Chiang Khan on the Mekong River, a tourist haven in northeastern Thailand’s Isaan region, local fishing communities now live in fear of a proposed dam that threatens to devastate their livelihoods. The $2 billion, 684-megawatt dam would sit just 2 ...
Tom Fawthrop
Cambodian families choose between land and fish
Out at sea, soft waves pressed and seesawed Sorm Doeun’s boat as he took a careful drag of his cigarette without shifting the rudder. He kept the craft steady for his weary son, who was napping in the bow after a morning casting nets. Along the ...
Cambodian fisherman accidentally hooks giant freshwater ray in Mekong
A 180kg female giant freshwater stingray was accidentally caught by Mekong River fishermen in Koh Preah community in Koh Preah village and commune of Stung Treng province’s Siem Bok district. Sin Piseth, a river guard based in Koh Preah village, told The Post on May 9 ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya/The Phnom Penh Post
Vietnam boosts satellite-based vessel monitoring to eradicate IUU fishing
Installing vessel monitoring systems (VMS) is one of the important measures the European Commission (EC) recommended for Vietnam to remove the EC’s “yellow card” warning against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The Directorate of Fisheries has certified eight VMSs that meet the standards stipulated in the Government’s Decree No. ...
VNA
Chinese dams on Mekong River endanger fish stocks, livelihoods, activists say
For Pianporn Deetes, the Mekong is more than a river. “This is not just liquid, but this is the entire life-supporting system,” Deetes, a local activist, said recently on a wooden long-tail boat heading upstream in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. The Mekong, one of the world’s longest waterways, runs about ...
Keir Simmons, Rhoda Kwan, Nat Sumon and Jennifer Jett