CONSERVATION PROBLEM

The Ganges River Dolphin and Irrawaddy Dolphin are blind and use echo-location for their movement. Even though their habitat in Bangladesh is exposed to high fishing activities, it is home to at least 225 Ganges River Dolphins and 451 Irrawaddy Dolphins. Some fishing methods are a grave threat and every year there are too many cases dolphin entanglement and dolphin deaths caused by fishing nets in the Sundarbans.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

This SOS - Save Our Species project, implemented through the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP), assessed the magnitude and nature of human activities and ecological characteristics in freshwater dolphin “hotspots” while providing essential information to develop a management plan for a proposed protected area network for freshwater cetaceans incorporating the needs of local communities and minimizing destructive impacts.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of this project were to estimate the contribution of fisheries to the local economy, understand the management structure of governing the aquatic resources, assess the catch-per-unit effort of the entangling gear and identify less destructive ways of collecting shrimp larvae in the area.

SOS - Save Our Species
>> A global coalition to conserve threatened species and their habitats