Cambodian Fish Harvest Down 50% In Tonle Sap River - AP

[hatrack]

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — "The fish catch in a Cambodian tributary of the Mekong River has fallen by about 50 percent from last year because of small floods during the rainy season and low water levels, and other parts of the river could be facing similar problems, a biologist said.

Sixty-five nets that straddle the Tonle Sap River brought in about 6,000 tons of fish during the November to mid-March fishing season, said Chris Barlow, manager of the Mekong River Commission's fisheries program. The data on the Tonle Sap nets — which trap about 5 percent of the fish caught in Cambodia — aren't "necessarily telling the big picture of the Mekong," but it is likely that similar problems are being faced in Laos and Vietnam, Barlow said late Wednesday.

The main reasons for the decline were smaller-than-normal floods during the wet season — which drives the production of fish — and low water levels during the dry season, Barlow said.

However, another factor may be overfishing in Cambodia. "There are enough warning bells here now for us to be able to say that ... we are approaching the maximum utilization of the fisheries resource" in Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake and river, Barlow said."

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-01/s_22386.asp