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Article: Saving freshwater dolphins means saving their rivers.(irrawaddy dolphin protection must include river habitats in Cambodia)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- June 3, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The sound came first, a sharp blowing sound from somewhere in the muddy waters of the Mekong River. Then Phong Choeun got a brief, breath-catching glimpse of what he had been looking for - the blue-gray fin of an irrawaddy dolphin.
Villagers had warned him that sightings of these freshwater mammals are increasingly rare, he says. And as his long-tail boat bobbed quietly on the river, Phong Choeun decided he would do whatever he could to save the few that were left.
Protecting the dolphin is crucial for reasons beyond saving the species, says Ian Baird, a Laos-based researcher, who wrote a recent study on dolphins in Cambodia. The dolphins' presence is ...