Data Show Turbulence, Decline in Mekong River Ecosystems

November is usually a happy month for Cambodia’s fishermen.  As the rainy season ends, the waters of the Mekong and its many tributaries should provide a bountiful supply of fish to feed their community and sell at market. But this year, as has become the trend, the nets were less full than the year before.

“We should get a lot of fish this month, November and December, but we get so little fish this year,” said Y Ya, 57, a fisherman whose boat is moored to the shore in the capital city of Phnom Penh. “Fish are declining every year. I don’t know where they have gone,” he said. “Everyone’s complaining.” Ya, whose parents too are fishermen, lives with his wife on their 1-meter wide and about 2.5-meter long wooden fishing boat.

He is among more than 60 million people across the region whose livelihoods rely on the Mekong, which flows from its upper reaches in China through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

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