Protect Our Fishing.

   More than haft of us eat fish almost every day. For hundreds of years, fishing has been practiced in Cambodia to meet our families needs and as a small business to make extra money. Cambodia is richer in fish than other countries, so at the moment we can catch enough fish to sell some abroad. In this way, fishing has become the main business of many people who live along the Mekong, around the Great Lake, and along the seacoast in Kampong Som, Kampot and Koh Kong provinces.
   There are some very simple tools like nets and fish traps, which have been used by our fishermen to catch fish, crabs, and seafood generality. The fish population has never been damaged by the use of these traditional tools.
Recently, however, the amount of fish has been decreasing quickly. Why is this?
   Nowadays, some fishermen are using new ways to catch more fish to increase their business. For example, they use big fishing nets with small holes, that catch even the smallest fish, or they use electricity or poison to kill the fish. These modern tricks are harmful to the fish population. Fishermen who have used such methods have not taken notice of the national fishing laws, yet they have been tolerated. Now the situation has become serious. Some kinds of fish have been lost completely and they can not be replaced. At the same time, the forests that grow along our rivers and around our lakes, particularly around the Great Lake, have been cut down. This is a scandal and if it continues, our environment will soon be 'destroyed.
   The only way to protect the fish is for our fishermen to understand that the national fishing laws are necessary, because the fish population is limited. We must not allow methods of fishing that kill even the smallest fish which nobody needs, but, instead, we must make sure our laws are effective.