In April 2013 I was about to graduate from Duke’s CEM program and had little idea what was in store for me other than I had the totally conventional option of moving to Cambodia.
Fast-forward 12 months and I found myself sitting in the lobby of a guesthouse in Phnom Penh catching up with my graduate school advisor, Dr. Andy Read, and asking his opinions about our data collection and potential outcomes for the upcoming workshop. Despite the challenges over the last six months, at this moment, I couldn’t help but think how lucky I was to have this experience. Although I was a bit intimidated to present our findings at the workshop I was thankful for the opportunity and excited for the rest of the week.
Andy Read and I in front of the Mekong waterfront
Beyond presentations and working group sessions, I had little idea of what to expect from the workshop. Having never been to an international meeting I didn’t even understand how the translations worked (the translator is essentially housed in an enclosed box and the participants wear headphones to listen).
When everyone was settled on the first day I quickly surveyed the room and spotted a majority of the staff from the WWF Kratie Office, prominent officials from the Fisheries Administration, and the group of internationally respected scientists, many of whom are members of the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group. While I knew the conservation of this species has been a collaborative effort, it wasn’t until that day I truly realized the teamwork and commitment extends far beyond the reaches of what I witness at the office each day.
The morning and early afternoon consisted of updates on the progress of the conservation efforts to date. As I mentioned, this is not the first of these international workshops, and multiple recommendations were put forth in 2012 along with the signing of the Kratie Declaration on the Conservation of the Mekong River Irrawaddy Dolphins. Gerry Ryan, the technical advisor for WWF-Kratie, has primarily been responsible for carrying out the research recommendations and thus provided updates on a myriad of topics including dolphin mortality, population size, the ongoing necropsy program, and previously conducted biopsy trials. Brian Smith, Director of Wildlife Conservation Society’s Asian Freshwater and Coastal Cetacean Program, presented information regarding the status of the hydropower developments along the Mekong and the serious threat they pose to the dolphins at the transboundary pool between Laos and Cambodia. Dr. Bob Brownell, Senior Scientist for Protected Resources at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, helped simplify the results of some genetic analysis and explain the implications for the taxonomic classification of the species. Finally, Dr. Peter Thomas, International and Policy Program Director for the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, addressed the issue of electro-fishing which is believed to be a serious threat to the dolphins; however, to date, obtaining concrete evidence the technique has harmed any dolphins has proved difficult, and questions remain as to how electro-fishing even affects large mammals.
The remaining afternoon and second day of the workshop were largely devoted to six working group sessions focusing on dolphin mortality (specifically the necropsy program), behavior and ecology, population dynamics, tourism, fisheries and law enforcement, and hydropower development. While each of these topics is important for the conservation of this species, it became clear the prominent threat to these animals remains gillnet entanglement and the increasing pressure of hydropower development.
Although gillnets are banned in the core areas of the dolphin habitat and a contingent of river guards patrol dolphin habitat areas in the Mekong River, they are still the primary cause of death for adult dolphins. The group determined assessing the efficacy of the current enforcement program will be useful to ensure enforcement is taking place in the right places and at the right times.
Additionally, the group echoed WWF’s position on hydropower development calling for the halt of construction on the Don Sahong Dam and instead proposing the construction of the more sustainable Thako Project (see blog post on Don Sahong Dam for more information). Specifically, the group called for quantitative investigations to determine the impacts of the dam on fish passage and also the extent the construction of the dam would affect the dolphins’ prey (this would mean undertaking a study to more fully understand the dolphins’ diet).
Given this was my first experience working on an international conservation issue in this workshop setting I couldn’t help but be impressed by the collaborative nature of everyone in the room. Over the course of 48 hours these professionals received information on the current status of this species and had to turn around and immediately create a revised roadmap for where and how to direct research and management efforts. I’m not sure what’s in store for me in the future, but I hope one day I could potentially be in the position to provide similar expertise on pressing conservation issues.
Attendees at the workshop
Also, on a personal note, I felt very privileged I was able to present the progress of my behavioral research at the workshop. Just a couple days before the meeting Gerry helped prepare preliminary results of our data and I knew the meeting would be a great opportunity to obtain advice about how we could improve our data analysis and the project as a whole.
I was pleased to hear from multiple people that our work was a great first stab at understanding these animals’ behavior and would definitely provide a framework to build off of in the future. I plan on dedicating another blog post to an explanation of our results, but for now I can summarize what we have found – the data suggests there is more social behavior occurring near calves, and additionally because we witnessed a possible attack on a calf in January, we cannot at this point rule out infanticide as a hypothesis for the recent years of high calf mortality. Currently, we have two remaining field weeks left and then will continue to analyze and write up our data.
However, without looking too far ahead, this past weekend I was simply content knowing this workshop will be one of the highlights of my time in Cambodia and I’m thankful I had the opportunity to meet many well-respected scientists and observe the ongoing efforts to conserve this endangered species.