Human Interactions
The venomous stings of the white-edge freshwater whipray are capable of inflicting excruciating and even fatal wounds on humans. This species is extremely rare, with only about 10 specimens having been deposited in museum collections. Most of its range is subject to heavy fishing pressure; this ray is infrequently caught using fish traps, spears, and bottom-set lines; it is sold for meat and the aquarium trade. Habitat loss and degradation, from pollution, logging, and dam construction, likely poses a greater threat to the survival of this species. In Thailand, dams built on the Chao Phraya have fragmented the resident stingray population and effectively reduced its genetic diversity. Because of diverse threats faced by this ray and the lack of exchange between the different rivers it inhabits, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the white-edge freshwater whipray as Endangered. The Thai government began a captive breeding program for this and other endangered freshwater stingrays at Chai Nat during the 1990s, but by 1996 the program had been placed on hold.
Read more about this topic: White-edge Freshwater Whipray
Famous quotes containing the words human and/or interactions:
“For my own part, I commonly attend more to nature than to man, but any affecting human event may blind our eyes to natural objects. I was so absorbed in him as to be surprised whenever I detected the routine of the natural world surviving still, or met persons going about their affairs indifferent.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Whereas children can learn from their interactions with their parents how to get along in one sort of social hierarchy—that of the family—it is from their interactions with peers that they can best learn how to survive among equals in a wide range of social situations.”
—Zick Rubin (20th century)