Fishing, fisheries and aquaculture

Exports of Cambodian fish and shellfish products reached 1,618 tonnes last year, worth $3.5 million, a 16 per cent increase from 1,391 tonnes in 2011, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce. “A major share of the total exports last year was from saltwater fish ...

Prices for the highly-prized fish known as pa sa-see (Mekongina erythrospila) have more than doubled to $50 a kilogram, sources said. ...

Cambodia’s annual prahok season began Wednesday along the Tonle Sap River, with fishermen unloading boatloads of tiny fish onto weigh stations along the riverbank. But due to low water levels during this year’s five-day migration season, fishermen and buyers were predicting a poor catch, both in ...

Residents of Tropang Thlong village in Ponhea Krek district say casinos near the border with Vietnam are polluting fishing grounds. ...

The planned construction of hydropowered dams on the Mekong River in South-East Asia could jeopardise livelihoods, water access and food security for 60 million people, across Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a study. The study reports that dams will block fish migration routes and ...

Fish production in Cambodia’s great Tonle Sap Lake is on track to reach last year’s level, an official said Wednesday, despite concern from fishermen that yields are dwindling due to environmental problems. Nao Thouk, director of the Fisheries Administration under the Ministry of Agriculture, said that ...

Fishing vessels registered in the Philippines, Indonesia and Cambodia have been filmed “laundering” illegally caught tuna, environment activist group Greenpeace International said Thursday. Two Indonesian vessels and one Philippine ship were transferring their hauls on to the Cambodian boat so that the location of their catches ...

he European Union is warning eight nations from around the world to improve their fight against illegal fishing or risk sanctions. EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said Thursday that naming Belize, Cambodia, Fiji, Guinea, Panama, Sri Lanka, Togo and Vanuatu did not mean they were put ...

Sketchy details that fail to specify when construction of the Lower Sesan 2 hydro dam will begin, or name the Chinese company involved, have villagers fearing for their future, representatives and environmental groups say. Since the Council of Ministers announced on Friday it had signed off ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday signed off on the Lower Sesan 2 dam project in Stung Treng province, despite long-standing criticism leveled against the project by environmental groups who say it would adversely affect 100,000 people as a consequence of reduced access to fish. The ...

The inking of a €300 million contract for water turbines, and job advertisements marked “urgent” appear to be the latest signs that Laos is powering forward with the Xayaburi hydroelectric dam project on the Mekong River. Assurances the $3.8 billion project was on hold pending further ...

Fishermen representing five Cambodian communities will publicly express their support for a ban on gillnet use in a ceremony highlighting the importance of the Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin. The event organised by the Commission for Dolphin Conservation and Development of the Mekong River Dolphin Eco-tourism Zone, ...

Sitting at his outpost overlooking the Mekong River, Deab Kuy remembers an incident some years ago when fishermen threatened to attack him if they were stopped from casting their nets around the river’s sandy islets here in Sambok commune. The outpost, little more than a wooden house on ...

Residents of Kratie province had an education in conservation yesterday as the government and outside partners reiterated a September sub-decree banning gill nets on a sizable stretch of the Mekong in a bid to protect the badly endangered Mekong River dolphin. Touch Seang Tana, head of the Commission ...

Laos has contracted firms to build and operate another significant hydro-power plant on the Mekong River system, adding to the existing furor over potential effects on downstream countries such as Cambodia from the controversial Xayaburi dam. The contracts, reportedly worth $1 billion, are for a series of three dams making ...

Fishery resources could fall this year because of a lack of flooding along rivers and waterways impeding fish from travelling freely or finding food to encourage their growth, a fishery official says. Sam Nov, deputy general director of Fishery Administration at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and ...

Some questions remain about whether hydro dams on the upper Mekong River in China exacerbated conditions during Cambodia’s devastating drought of 2010, environmental groups say, as China’s dam program powers ahead. When the first power-generating unit was switched on last month at China’s giant 262-metre tall ...

The coastal guard has seized a fishing vessel flying the flag of Cambodia off the cost of Primorye, the press service for the Border Guard Department of the Federal Security Service for the Primorye Territory has reported. The vessel Anteus (registered in Cambodia, owned by the ...

Cambodian and Vietnamese officials agreed Thursday to details of a proposed cross-border project to improve fisheries management between Prey Veng Province and Dong Thap Province in Vietnam. The agreement came during a two-day meeting chaired by So Sophort, deputy secretary general of the Cambodian National Mekong ...

Villagers on Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, who depend on fishing for subsistence, say their livelihoods are threatened by illegal commercial fishing, which continues after a government ban. And they say authorities in charge of enforcing the ban are being bribed to look the other ...

Provincial authorities arrested eight Vietnamese fishermen who illegally crossed into un-demarcated Cambodian waters in Kampot province on Tuesday. The two boats were intercepted by river police in the early morning while they were trawling, Touch Poleak, deputy director of the water border protection department, said.   Sar ...

Fisheries Administration patrols increased on the Mekong River in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces to prevent fishermen from using dai fishing methods as the seasonal fish migration period begins. However, the Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), an umbrella group of national and international organizations, said the ...

China’s dam building spree on the upper Mekong River raises new tensions over water resources Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang obviously had China in mind when he warned recently that tensions over water resources are not only threatening economic growth but presenting a source of conflict Cambodia, ...

The long-term impact of 6 tons of toxic chemicals that spilled into a stream in Kompong Chhnang province on Tuesday, killing several hundred kilograms of fish, is still unclear, the provincial department of environment said on Friday. The chemicals, identified as the cleaning agents Ridoline 560, ...