Mapping the Mekong to Protect Fish

Our team just finished our latest National Geographic expedition—this time to the Khone Falls region of the Mekong River. This 11km wide section of waterfalls at the border of Laos and Cambodia plunges 45 feet through a maze of vertical waterfalls, flumes and cascades—some runable, many terrifying. While descending the runable parts of the falls was part of our mission, finding the best way upstream was our ultimate goal.

This section of the Mekong is the largest inland fishery in the world. Billions of dollars of revenue are generated by the fishery and millions who live along the river depend on the more than 200 fish species for food. All this could come to an end though, if plans to construct a dam at the falls goes forward.

We teamed up with Zeb Hogan, Megafish expert and host of National Geographic Channel’s Monster Fish, to figure out what the impact of the dam would be on the fish population. We rigged a Wavesport Habitat with an advanced sonar mapping system and paddled several of the channels to figure out where spawning fish are able to migrate.

The episode of Monster Fish will air this summer on the National Geographic Channel. Stay tuned for updates on air dates for this show and an episode we shot in November on the River of Doubt in Brazil.

Mapping the Mekong to Protect Fish

You need to be a member of Dagger to add comments!