5 January
Of all aquatic animals that flourish in the waters of the world, only three species of warm-blooded mammals are found living in aquatic habitats.
Those mammals are dolphins, whales and dugongs, all of which, except one species of dolphin, are found in seawater. There are thirty known species of dolphins, and only one is found in fresh water. Its scientific name is Orcaella brevirostris, but is widely known as the Ayeyawady Dolphin.
In 1866, Sir Richard Owen reported his earlier discovery of the Ayeyawady Dolphin species in 1852 near the harbor of Visakhapa-tnam on the eastern coast of India. Later, English naturalist John Anderson had travelled to Myanmar during a research exploration along the Ayeyawady river, from 1871 to 1879. During his research he discovered the round-snouted ash grey dolphin in the Ay-eyawady river and he became the first person to discover the fresh water dolphin.
When he returned to London, he wrote a research paper entitled, “Description of a new cetacean from the Irrawady River, Burma” and submitted it to the London Zoological Association. He de-scribed those ash-grey dolphin as Ayeyawady Dolphin and, hence-forth, it has been widely known as the Ayeyawady Dolphin.
Similar species found in other parts of the world are also referred to as Ayeyawady or Irrawady Dolphin.
According to the Wildlife Con-servation Society-Myanmar, there are only some 76 Ayeyawady dolphins in Myanmar today.
Conservationists found 26 dolphins between Mandalay and Kyaukmyaung, and some 50 be-tween Kyaukmyaung and Bhamo, totalling 76.
Several reports indicate that the dolphins in Mingun and Kyaukmyaung areas have higher intelligence and perform ‘cooper-ative fishing’ with fishermen by driving fish to boats so fishermen can easily net them.
A dolphin is said to be the leader of the group, raising its head above the water and setting its tail vertically above the water, signal-ling for fishermen to be ready to catch the fish. When the dolphin exposes its tail horizontally above the water and slaps the surface of the water, the fishermen under-stand it is a signal to follow them. The fishermen then follow the dolphins, which leads to where they can find the fish.
Local education campaigns have attracted more people to help protect the dolphins, though their injury rate has not signifi-cantly fallen.
A dolphin is said to be the leader of the group, raising its head above the water and setting its tail vertically above the water, signal-ling for fishermen to be ready to catch the fish. When the dolphin exposes its tail horizontally above the water and slaps the surface of the water, the fishermen under-stand it is a signal to follow them. The fishermen then follow the dolphins, which leads to where they can find the fish.
Local education campaigns have attracted more people to help protect the dolphins, though their injury rate has not signifi-cantly fallen.
The dolphin survey report aims to prevent their numbers from dropping and to increase their reproduction rate by imple menting a regional-level protec-tion programme.
Officials report that 4 Irrawaddy dolphins died in 2010, 3 in 2011, 4 in 2012, 5 in 2013, 3 each in 2014 and 2017, 6 in 2018, and 2 in 2019.
About 70 per cent of Ayeyawady dolphins died because of electric-shock fishing, while the remaining 30 per cent of the dolphins died when becoming caught in fishing nets.
The dolphins’ natural habitats in Mingun, Kyaukmyaung, Htigyaing, Kathar and Shwegu are designated conservation areas. The Department of Fisheries and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) are working with local residents to protect the dolphins.
Mandalay Region Hluttaw Resource and Environmental Con-servation Committee is planning to write a report on bringing the endangered species back from near extinction.
Also, the dolphin situation is to be brought before the Mandalay Region Parliament.
Protecting the dolphins is everyone’s responsibility.
By Aung Thant Khaing
Translated by GNLM
