OAAs account for about 20 percent of the total Mekong catch.[3] When fisheries are discussed, catches are typically divided between the wild capture fishery (i.e. fish and other aquatic animals caught in their natural habitat), and aquaculture (fish reared under controlled conditions). Wild capture fisheries play the most important role in supporting livelihoods. Wild capture fisheries are largely open access fisheries, which poor rural people can access for food and income.
Broadly, there are three types of fish habitats in the Mekong: i) the river, comprising all the main tributaries, rivers in the major flood zone and the Tonle Sap, which altogether yield about 30 percent of wild catch landings; ii) rainfed wetlands outside the river-floodplain zone, comprising mainly rice paddy in formerly forested areas and usually inundated to about 50 cm and yielding about 66 percent of wild catch landings; and iii) large water bodies outside the flood zone, including canals and reservoirs yielding about 4 percent of wild catch landings.[3]
The Mekong Basin has one of the world’s largest and most productive inland fisheries.[11][15][16][17] An estimated 2 million tonnes of fish are landed a year, in addition to almost 500,000 tonnes of other aquatic animals.[18] Aquaculture yields about 2 million tonnes of fish a year.[14]