Save the Mekong River and the giant catfish.

• Author: Chunthapong, Jirapat
• Position: From Readers - Letter to the Editor

I was alarmed by the article "Messing With the Mekong" by Lisa Mastny (November/December 2003), citing the Upper Mekong Navigation Improvement Project, initiated by the Chinese government, which involves blasting of shoals, rapids, and reefs along a 331-kilometer stretch of river from the Sino-Burmese border to Huay Xai.

The Mekong River is home to more than 1,200 species offish and other aquatic life. Undoubtedly, the altered flow of the Mekong will pose a certain degree of impact on the ecosystem along the river stretch. But what concerns me most is the fact that the blasting will destroy the "only known spawning grounds" of the endangered giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas), the largest freshwater fish in Asia. Despite an effort by the Thai Department of Fisheries, which has released approximately 10,000 captive-bred giant catfish into the Mekong since 2000, the reported catch for this species in Chiang Khong, Northern Thailand, has declined dramatically--from a peak of 69 in 1990 to seven in 1997 and zero in 2001. Habitat loss and degradation (such as ones planned under the Upper Mekong Navigation Improvement Project), in addition to over-fishing, have been...