Chapter 9 - Fisheries of the Mekong River Basin

Abstract

The Mekong Basin's (MB's) fisheries are characterized by a diversity of species and habitats, as well as a diversity of gears and fishing activities, as are inland fisheries generally. Most of the Mekong system's fish species are small, growing to maturity in their first or second year and many are extremely fecund or are repeat spawners adapted to take advantage of the great seasonal change in extent of available habitats. Aquatic habitats are most extensive in the lowlands; of most importance to fisheries are large river-floodplain systems, rice fields and associated habitats, large man-made reservoirs, and the estuary and brackish-water zone. Marine fisheries also depend upon nutrients in the Mekong's plume and the division of the fishery into inland and marine by a line across the mouth is quite arbitrary in an ecological sense. Numerous smaller streams and rivers run from uplands of northern Laos, northern Thailand and the Annamite mountain chain, as well as from the smaller mountains that delimit the catchment in southeast and northern Cambodia; uplands form a fifth habitat that is of relatively minor direct importance in fisheries.