Bangkok--Dec 1--TAT
It is the end of the monsoon season and the waters of the Bang Pakong River flowing into the Gulf of Thailand, a one-hour drive east of Bangkok, are calmer. This makes looking for an elusive river dolphin all the easier.
Within minutes of leaving the banks of the river in a small fishing vessel chartered by the local authority, a slate-blue dorsal fin is spotted breaching the muddy brown waters off the starboard side. A small flotilla of boats quickly converge on the site as tourists and scientists alike try to get a glimpse of the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), one of the world’s most endangered dolphins. Irrawaddy dolphins inhabit coasts, estuaries and rivers of southern and southeast Asia and northern Australia. They are found in warm shallow coastal waters and sometimes in rivers as far as 1,300 km inland from the sea.
In the Bang Pakong River in Thailand, Irrawaddy dolphins appear seasonally at the end of the monsoon rains in November. This year they arrived earlier in October. The dolphins follow the pla duk talae or ‘eel catfish’ (Plotosus canius), a species of catfish that also moves into the estuary at this time, and is their main source of food for the next few months. End.