Guest houses also have sprung up to cater to the most recent waterworld intruders - Western backpackers. The capacity of the area to absorb tourists is certainly an important concern for the future. On the positive side, Baird said, tourism may be the one savior of the Irrawaddy dolphins, which probably number less than 100 from the thousands that once inhabited the Mekong. Villagers who benefit from the tourist trade likely will want to preserve the dolphin by not fishing in areas they frequent. Baird, who arrived in Laos 10 years ago, has helped organize fishermen to take tourists out to view the dolphins and compensate them for nets they must slash to free any that are entangled.
Legends abound about the endearing dolphins, their rounded faces set in what seems like a smile.
Cambodians relate how a beautiful maiden, forced by her parents to marry a slimy python, leaped into the Mekong to commit suicide but was instead transformed into a dolphin. Along the Mekong, there are stories about the dolphins saving people from crocodiles and taboos about killing and eating the animals.