May 11, 2007

Rare fish found in Vietnam's Mekong Delta out of danger

A rare variety of fish has been helped to survive by a scientist and is now boosting its population in Cuu Long (Mekong) River. 

Scientist Huynh Huu Ngai, after more than two years of artificially breeding and raising ca ho, the giant barb (Catlocarpio siamensis) said he has managed to preserve the species. 

Ngai has poured thousands of fingerlings and juvenile fish to farms in Mekong Delta provinces to rejuvenate the species' development. He has done the similar process for further investigations at the Research Institute for Aquaculture No 2 in Tien Giang Province.

Ngai's work is a part of a series of national and international programmes to protect precious indigenous fish species in Mekong Delta from depletion caused by overfishing and the intrusion of economic development along the river. The river is a vital resource for more than 40 million people in the Lower Mekong Basin and the giant barb has to share the water with the growing populations of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

Dr Pham Van Khanh, director of the Centre for Aquaculture of the Southern Freshwater Species, Ngai along with the centre has been working since the early 90s on preserving the genes of some 20 fish varieties identified as having high cash values or facing extinction.

These species have been protected both through frozen eggs and sperm to preserve their DNA and through national parks, ponds and fishing farms, as part of national preservation programmes.

Domesticating and artificially breeding selected freshwater fish species is also in the offing to both develop the species and as well as support the farmers.

Khanh said the programmes and projects carried out at the centre are receiving support and cooperation from international institutions and organisations. They include the Mekong River Commission (MRC) and DANIDA, a branch of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark that provides humanitarian assistance to developing countries.