Kampi pool

Kampi pool is a deep stretch of the Mekong (ទន្លេមេគង្គ) in Chetr Borei district, Kratie (ក្រចេះ) province, where Irrawaddy dolphins (ផ្សោត) live. When the river is low, the dolphins collect in the deep water of four core zones, and Kampi is one of the two in Kratie, with Koh Pdao.

An Irrawaddy dolphin surfacing in the Mekong at Kampi, Kratié Province, in January 2014

Place details
Location	Chetr Borei district, Kratie province
Country	Cambodia

In the Explorer

Kampi pool connects to 4 pages

Mekong, Stung Treng, Kratie and Irrawaddy dolphin.

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Explore the 4 connected pages

On this page

1. The dolphin zone
2. Births and counts
3. References

On this page

1. The dolphin zone
2. Births and counts
3. References

The dolphin zone

The core zones date from September 2012 and Sub-Decree No. 155. The dolphins range from Koh Trung island, at Kratie town, upstream to the Khone falls at the Laos border, in Stung Treng (ស្ទឹងត្រែង) province, and 72 river guards are posted at 16 outposts along the river. In 2004 the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature classed the Mekong population as Critically Endangered.

For communities along the river, dolphin watching is an important trade. Some people in Cambodia and Laos hold the animals sacred. Many are caught in gillnets, one of the main dangers they face.

Births and counts

On February 11, 2024, a calf about two days old swam with six adults at Kampi village; it was the first dolphin birth recorded that year.

In 2025 researchers from the Fisheries Administration and the World Wide Fund for Nature found a newborn calf at the Kampi pool, the eighth born that year. After that birth the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries put its tally of the population at 112.

Survey estimates differ from that tally: fewer than 200 dolphins in 1997, and 89 for the years 2017 to 2020. A report on the 2017 count gives about 90, against 200 in the first count of 1997.

References 4