Are dams a human well-being or a natural disaster? The establishment of China's largest dam, the Three Gorges Dam, has always been a matter of mixed opinions. Yes, the construction of dams has allowed people to better regulate floods and make better use of natural resources for farming and power generation.
But what harm would the establishment of the dam bring? Today let's walk into the Mekong River, a natural fish barn destroyed by a dam.
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The Mekong Is the third largest river in Asia, after the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, and the longest river in Southeast Asia, spanning many countries in Southeast Asia, originating in China's Tanggula Mountains, flowing through Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and finally into the South China Sea in Vietnam.
In China, the Mekong River is known as the Lancang River, and after leaving Xishuangbanna in Yunnan, it is called the Mekong River.
Although the Mekong river is the most important river in Southeast Asia, its shipping value is not high. The climate type of the lower Mekong River is mainly based on the tropical monsoon climate, and the most significant feature of this climate type is that the dry season and the rainy season are particularly distinct, and there is basically no water during the dry season, but floods may be triggered during the rainy season. The instability of water volume has prevented the mekong from being fully exploited for shipping, and only 550 kilometers downstream can be used for navigation.
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The Lancang family in China has always been loved by many anglers, mainly because the local fish species are particularly rich, and there are many local special fish. What many people don't know is that the fish in the Mekong River are quite abundant, of which there are 850 species of freshwater fish, second only to the Amazon River, and this degree of biodiversity is very difficult.
According to relevant data, the Mekong River is the largest number of large fish in the world, and there are thousands of species of fish in this river alone. If you think about it carefully, will you find that the Mekong River is often fished out of the oversized fish, often requiring several people to work together to carry it, why is this?
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The Stingray of the Mekong River is the most widely known freshwater fish in the world, measuring 4.27 meters long and weighing 600 kilograms. They often bury themselves in sand or at the bottom of silt rivers, breathe through holes or water holes at the top of their bodies, and their tails are whip-like and highly toxic.
Before stingrays, it was thought that the largest freshwater fish in the Mekong River was the Mekong giant catfish, which is also a freshwater fish endemic to the Mekong River, with a body length of up to 3 meters and a weight of 350 kilograms, a catfish looks like a small shark in the river, this fish mainly feeds on grass, and its lifespan is about 30 years old.
There is also a species in the Mekong Called Giant Siamese Carp, which is the largest carp in the world, which can weigh up to 120 kilograms, especially the red giant Siamese carp is very rare and is regarded as the national fish of Cambodia.
The Mekong River is rich in fish resources, which is simply a blessing for the people living along the mekong, the main economic fish species of the Mekong River alone are 50-120 species, and the amount of aquatic products exported each year is very large. However, of all fish, the most economically valuable are migratory fish, which need to reproduce through long migratory migrations.
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On such a large river, people always have to find a way to realize natural resources, and the Mekong River, which has little shipping value, has gradually become a tool for generating electricity. Dam after dam was slowly being built, and apparently, electricity generated more benefits than farming. However, this dealt a fatal blow to migratory fish in the river.
The establishment of barrages has resulted in the blockage of fish migration routes, so that they cannot spawn. The impact on local fish is quite lethal. If you look at the data, you will find it even more shocking, as by 2020, the dam project has led to a 40% reduction in the number of aquatic organisms in the Mekong, and in another 20 years, 80% of the fish in the Mekong will disappear.
Fish in the Mekong are facing an unprecedented crisis, and a significant number of fish are at risk of extinction. People seem to have prioritized the economy among economic and environmental effects, lamenting as the Mekong River begins to fall from a paradise of fish.
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