THAILAND: Two-decade old fight to save giant catfish has put 60,000 endangered fish back into the Mekong

At dusk on the Mekong in Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand, the day ends just as it has for centuries past. Fishermen whose subsistence livelihoods are sustained by one of the world's largest river systems steer their boats in from a day on the river. Their daily harvests feed their families and bring in a wage at the local market. Home to an estimated 1,300 species of fish, the Mekong is the main source of protein for some 73 million people who live along the river from China through to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The placid surface of the river also hides some of the world's most massive freshwater fish - - including the largest, the Mekong giant catfish, hunted close to extinction in recent decades. Scientists say Mekong giant catfish populations has fallen 90 percent over the last two decades, with the annual harvest dropping from 69 in 1990 to just one in 2003. But it doesn't take scientific estimates to tell fishermen like Poom Boonnhuk that pla beuk (prono: plah-berk), as the fish are known in Thai, is disappearing fast. Poom leads a grouping of fishermen in Chiang Khong district in Chiang Rai that hunts giant Mekong catfish every season. The numbers, he says, have declined drastically since 2000 and last year, his group only caught three. "In the old days we can just go down the river and cast the nets once, we get enough for a meal. But now it takes a whole day and there's not enough. It's not just the catfish that are disappearing but also the other kinds of fish," Poom says. Rites of song and dance open the start of each giant catfish hunting season in Chiang Khong which stretches over 45 days in April and May. To stem the giant fish's declining numbers, Thailand has since 1980 issued limited permits to fishermen in Chiang Rai to catch the fish only once a year, and not all are happy with it. Meat from a giant catfish is a local delicacy and can fetch some 250 baht (6.70 U.S. dollars) per kilogramme. With a fish growing up to a whopping 3 metres and 300 kilograms, a catch brings local fishermen an income few can ignore. It's also a way of life many like fisherman Chaiwat Mongkholchaiyasit have grown accustomed to. The 49 year old has been hunting the giant catfish since 7, when he went out on catfish hunts with his parents. "During the hunting season each year, there are tourists visiting the area so our housewives sell catfish dishes and souvenirs. When we stop catching the fish, there won't be any trade and tourism. Of course we have lost part of our income," Chaiwat told Reuters. Efforts to keep the giants of the Mekong from extinction have been multi-pronged and involved several countries lying along the Lower Mekong river basin, like Laos and Cambodia. One of the most tangible results have come from a two-decade old captive breeding programme started by Thai fishery officials. From one centre in 2002, the sprawling Inland Aquaculture Research Institute in Ayutthaya 76km north of Bangkok is now one of six breeding centres in the country run by the Thai Department of Fisheries. "Now (there are) about six fishery centre that can do produce the captive Mekong giant catfish. And right now I think the capacity of us, we can produce about 500,000 fingerlings a year," said Dr Naruepon Sukumasavin, head of Inland Fisheries Research and Development Bureau. During artificial insemination, eggs are harvested from captive adult female catfish that have been bred for an average of 17 - 20 years. The harvested eggs are then mixed with sperm from an adult male catfish and the fertilized eggs placed in cement ponds where they are hatched. It's not a cheap process. Young catfish are bred at a cost of 10,000 baht (266 U.S. dollars) each a year, some for 20 years till they are ready to breed. Survival rate ranges from 20 to 60 percent, but the results are still impressive. Since 1985, a total of 60,000 bred in this way from captured wild giant catfish have been released into the Mekong river. Survival rates of these captive bred fish in the wild are unknown though, and some environmentalists say they do not reproduce or survive well after their release. This year, fearing affecting genetic diversity in the Mekong, Dr Naruepon halted the release of captive bred fish into the Mekong. Instead, focus has now shifted to understanding the behaviour of the giant catfish, by tagging them with microchips to track their journey along the river. "Until now, no one knows where they go. They only come once a year and only one month in Chiang Rai then they disappear, then they come back next year. So we want to know where they go. If we can find out where they go, where they live, then we can step up the conservation project," said Dr Naruepon. The tagging of giant catfish was first started in Cambodia last year where the Cambodian fishery department is also working to save the giant fish in the Tonle Sap river that joins to the Mekong.

ITN Source | September 16, 2006

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