The Uncommon Irrawaddy Dolphin

Our second day in Mandalay was off the beaten track. I had done a lot of research about wildlife watching and conservation is Myanmar and most of the expeditions I found were very new to tourists and involved multi-day trips to Northern forests and “hard to pronounce” mountains in search of the endangered tiger… While I was eager to journey where no one would understand a word of English, I learned from local rangers that the wildlife has become difficult to find due to aggressive poaching. That’s when I discovered we could see the endangered Irrawaddy freshwater dolphin. I first learned about them when I lived in Laos (there is a small population that lives in the great Mekong river) but never had the chance of seeing the elusive cetacean…. Until now!

The Irrawaddy dolphin can live in both salt and fresh water but there are just 3 exclusively fresh water populations: about 100 individuals in the Mekong river, about 50 in Mahakam River in Indonesia, and about 70 live in the Ayeyarwady or Irrawaddy River in Myanmar. This mammal is related to the killer whale, its color is gray, can weigh up to 400 pound, and measures 2.7 meters.

The Irrawaddy Dolphin Project offers multiple types of tours including day and multi-day options on their slow boat. We booked the “introduction” day trip and were picked up at our hotel early in the morning by our guide Chit and taken to the jetty to board the slow boat. We had a “room” with a day bed downstairs where we could relax, read and nap, and the upstairs had a table, seating, tea, and snacks. We were the only tourists that day so I had the opportunity to grill our guide about dolphins as well as practice my Burmese while we slowly sailed up the river. We learned about the declining population, major threats to their survival (including electric fishing, giant nets, noise pollution, disease, lack of food, and boat traffic) and unique behavior.

The population in Myanmar is famous for having developed a symbiotic relationship with the fisherman of certain villages along the Irrawaddy River – they participate in cooperative fishing. Through coordinated signaling, dolphins aide fisherman to locate and catch fish. As seen in the video below, a fishing boat stops next to a sand bank where dolphins corral the fish and then give the “queue.” With a flip of a tale, the fisherman knows where and when to throw his net. The fact that dolphin and fisherman have developed a language of calls and signals is amazing. This rare behavior has been practiced for over 100 years and this dolphin species is just one of three in the world that does it (one in South America and another in Western Africa). The other groups of Irrawaddy dolphins inhabiting the Mekong in Laos and the Mahakam river in Indonesia do not show this behavior as far as I know.

The original article can be found here.

We had the chance to meet and travel with the “dolphin whisperer” who has been featured in many documentaries about his relationship with the local dolphins. Ironically, the dolphins were uncooperative that day – they didn’t respond to our repeated attempts to fish with them. Nevertheless, it was an incredible encounter to travel up the river with them and it made me feel like I was also part of a special tradition.

People are starting to realize how important the dolphins are for the health of the river and its ecosystem. I’m afraid this practice will slowly decline as small-scale net fishing becomes more difficult. We highly recommend this eye-opening experience that benefits the locals as well as the dolphins, and I hope that it raises awareness on all sides.

Have you seen fresh water dolphins before? Where? Have you taken this tour? What did you think? Please feel free to comment below.

More Info
The Irrawaddy Dolphin Project
World Wild Life - Irrawaddy Dolphin