ASIA / PACIFIC
August 21, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Rare crocodile eggs hatched at Cambodian conservation center
FORTUITOUS FIND. Siamese baby crocodiles
swim in a bin at the Koh Kong Reptile Conservation
Center in Koh Kong, Cambodia. The New York-based
Wildlife Conservation Society and Cambodia’s Fish-
eries Administration said the eggs of nine Siamese
crocodiles hatched at the Koh Kong Reptile Conserva-
tion Center, after being retrieved from the wild to pro-
tect them from poachers and predators. (Wildlife
Conservation Society and Fisheries Administration
via AP)
By Sopheng Cheang
The Associated Press
P
HNOM PENH, Cambodia — Nine
eggs of an endangered crocodile
species found in the wild in June
and taken to a conservation center in
southern Cambodia have hatched,
according to conservationists.
The New York-based Wildlife Conserva-
tion Society (WCS) and Cambodia’s
Fisheries Administration said the eggs of
nine Siamese crocodiles hatched at the
Koh Kong Reptile Conservation Center
after being retrieved from the wild to
protect them from poachers and predators.
WCS says the crocodile, with an
estimated global population of around 410,
is found only in Cambodia, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, with
the greatest number in Cambodia. The
species is listed as critically endangered by
the International Union for Conservation
of Nature because its numbers are rapidly
shrinking.
The June discovery of the eggs was the
first Siamese crocodile nest recorded in six
years of research and protection in Koh
Kong’s Sre Ambel area.
The conservation center was established
by the two organizations to safeguard
endangered reptiles such as Siamese
crocodiles and Royal turtles.
“We will take care of these hatchlings
until they are able to survive in nature on
their
own,”
the
groups’
joint
announcement quoted Som Sitha, WCS’s
technical adviser for the Sre Ambel
Conservation Project, as saying. “We will
then release some to the wild, and others
will be kept for breeding.”
His colleague, Tun Sarorn, caretaker of
Royal turtles and Siamese crocodiles at the
center, expressed her excitement over the
hatchlings.
“I am so excited to see these hatchlings.
It is the first time I have taken care of them
since arriving at the center,” she was
quoted as saying. “Before seeing them, I
was surprised to hear their voices from
inside the eggs. It was amazing, and I felt
so happy because I realized they are
coming out. I will feed them all … with
small fish and frogs.”
A different conservation group, WWF-
Cambodia, separately announced encour-
aging news about another endangered
species, the Irrawaddy dolphin, or Mekong
dolphin, which has a worldwide population
of about 7,000, 90 percent of that in
Bangladesh. In Cambodia and Laos, there
are an estimated 80 adults in the Mekong
River. WWF-Cambodia announced that
from January through mid-August, they
recorded two dolphin deaths and eight
births, an improvement over the same
period last year when there were four
deaths and four births.
“More than ever, there is hope to believe
it is possible to reverse the trend of the
Mekong dolphin decline,” the group said in
a statement.
Changing tastes brew bitter times for Japan’s beer makers
By Yuri Kageyama
AP Business Writer
T
LIFESAVING SKILL. Bangladeshi children attend a swim-training
session as others watch, at a pond in the Shishu Polli Plus area in Sree-
pur village, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Drowning is a major cause of death
among youngsters in Bangladesh, claiming up to 18,000 children under
the age of 18 every year, and 43 percent of deaths among children under
age five, according to a 2011 government survey. A British charity has
partnered with a Bangladeshi research group to offer swim lessons in the
central Bangladeshi farming village for children from poor, rural families.
(AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)
Swim class aims to stop major
cause of death in Bangladesh
By Julhas Alam
The Associated Press
S
REEPUR, Bangladesh — Children once afraid of
the water are learning how to swim in a program
aimed at reducing drownings in Bangladesh.
The delta nation is crisscrossed by hundreds of canals,
streams, and rivers, and drowning is a major cause of
death among youngsters. A 2011 government survey
found that up to 18,000 children drown every year —
accounting for 43 percent of deaths among children under
five years old.
Teaching basic swimming skills is seen as a way to
prevent more deaths.
A woman who lost two sons says she is overwhelmed
with regret for not ensuring her children could swim. A
weeping Samela Begum implored other mothers to teach
their children to swim, “otherwise your laps will become
empty like mine.”
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OKYO — From beer gardens on the rooftops of
department stores to fireworks extravaganzas to
quiet, wood-panelled craft breweries, Japanese
seem to quaff an awful lot of beer in the summer.
But beer consumption has been tanking for five years
straight in Japan, as the younger generation shies away
from the obligatory after-work drinking that was a
trademark of the dark-suited heroes of Japan Inc.
Japan’s annual per capita beer consumption fell about
seven percent between 2010 to 2015, according to a study
by major beer maker Kirin.
The future outlook is for more of the same. It’s such an
obvious trend that there’s a Japanese phrase to describe
it, beerooh banareh, or “leaving beer,” a gradual decline
that hit after beer drinking peaked in about the
mid-1990s.
Younger Japanese tend to be more independent minded
than their baby-boom generation parents or their
grandparents, who saw going out for beers with their
office bosses and co-workers as a call of duty.
Brews also are losing out in Japan to a wide variety of
other liquors, from wines to kanchuhai fruity cocktails,
whiskies, and cheaper beer-like drinks, and of course,
saké.
Naturally, all this worries Haruhiko Matsuba,
marketing manager for Asahi Breweries, the industry
leader in Japan.
“The custom is getting lost,” said Matsuba, who says he
enjoys a beer or two a day. “Beer can offer joy, happiness,
and smiles, and so everyone should try beer again.”
Asahi, founded in the late 1800s, is an institution in
Tokyo, where its huge golden suds sign shines on the
banks of the Sumida River. The annual Sumida River
summer fireworks it sponsors each July work like one big
huge ad for its beer by the river. This year the city’s
governor, Yuriko Koike, donned a summer kimono for
televised kanpais — traditional toasts.
In its effort to grab attention and help reverse the
decline in beer consumption, especially among the
younger generation, the iconic Japanese brand has turned
to Hollywood. It tapped actor Johnny Depp to help sell a
limited-edition version of its 30-year-old hit Super Dry —
the brew that helped catapult it to No. 1 in the Japanese
beer industry in 1998. The company’s latest ad campaign
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features Depp riffing on an electric guitar on a rooftop
before popping a cold one.
“He is an extraordinary character,” Matsuba told The
Associated Press. “It’s about the unexpected factor of
Hollywood.”
To expand its already formidable global reach, Asahi
has signed agreements with overseas beer brands, such as
Italy’s Peroni, the Dutch Grolsch, and Pilsner Urquell of
Czechoslovakia.
Other Japanese breweries also are expanding. Asahi’s
rival, Sapporo Holdings, which has been the No. 1
Japanese beer maker in the U.S. for three decades, has
Continued on page 7
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BEEROOH BANAREH. Takuya Iwata, left, and Mai Kamii, right,
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has been tanking as younger “salaryman” types shun old-style, after-work
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