(CAM-JA) Dolphins charm ex-banker to a new life

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Dolphins charm ex-banker to a new life

 

The Asahi Shimbun

By SUSUMU MAEJIMA

May 14, 2001

 

Former bank worker Keiichi Iwashige decided to turn his life around before

he got too old to appreciate it.

 

Iwashige left his job at Mitsubishi Trust & Banking Corp. after 29 years in

March, seven years ahead of the bank's mandatory retirement age, to focus on

researching and protecting the endangered Mekong River dolphin.

 

``I want to shed light on the Mekong River dolphin's habitat because little

is known about it,'' said Iwashige. ``I want to draw on (the knowledge of) a

network of officials, scholars and other experts that I have built up over

the years.''

 

Iwashige, 53, was so spellbound by the creatures that he forked out 3

million yen to cover the cost of constructing a center for the research and

conservation of the mammal.

 

The one-story building in the port town of Kratie, 150 kilometers northeast

of Phnom Penh, is built on 3,300 square meters of land leased for free by

the provincial government and is scheduled for completion soon.

 

Iwashige, who heads a citizens group called Human Animal Bond for the 21st

Century (HAB21), first visited Cambodia in 1996 with other members of the

group.

 

Although the country has been scarred by prolonged civil war, Iwashige

managed to kick start efforts to protect dolphins with help from like-minded

government officials and representatives of nongovernmental organizations.

 

Local residents rarely kill dolphins in Cambodia, but during Pol Pot's

reign, soldiers shot them for target practice and used their fat as fuel.

Many also have been killed by dynamite, grenades or electrocution, which is

a popular fishing technique.

 

Iwashige estimates that about 100 Mekong River dolphins now live between

Kratie and Cambodia's northern border with Laos.

 

In 1997, HAB21 sponsored a seminar in Kratie, where participants, including

experts and officials from Japan and Cambodia, as well as local fishermen,

decided for the first time to establish a dolphin conservation campaign. The

provincial governor later agreed to set up a 40-kilometer-long sanctuary

along the Mekong.

 

Iwashige formed HAB21 with six former high school classmates in 1991, after

learning of a decline in the number of dolphins in Kinko Bay in his native

Kagoshima Prefecture.

 

When Iwashige was young, dolphins were so common that he had to drive them

away when he was fishing.

 

``When we were kids, we were full of life and had a sparkle in our eyes

every day,'' Iwashige said. ``I wanted to do something that would allow

younger generations to enjoy a similar experience.''

 

In Japan, with its corporate-centered society, people usually wait until

retirement to pursue their dreams. But Iwashige, who was in his early 40s

when he established HAB21, was worried he was leaving things too late.

 

Since then, the group has taken children dolphin watching off Mikura Island,

part of the Izu Islands, among others, and has organized seminars on

dolphins, other animals and broader issues such as the environment. The

group now has about 100 members.

 

In March, Iwashige completed a graduate program at the Tokyo University of

Fisheries, earning a master's degree in fisheries resource management. His

thesis was about Mikura Island. He hopes to produce a paper on the Mekong

River dolphin for his doctorate in the future.

 

``Mr. Iwashige may not have been a perfect banker, but he has been faithful

to himself, unconstrained by the precedent,'' said Shiro Umeda, his former

supervisor at Mitsubishi Trust & Banking Corp. ``Many salarymen, even if

they turn over a new leaf in their 50s, stay more or less along the track on

which they began, but Mr. Iwashige has gone way beyond this.''

 

Although Kagoshima natives are known for their fiery tempers, Iwashige has

won the hearts of many Japanese and Cambodians with his eloquence, broad

smile, affable character.

 

``Mr. Iwashige was bright, friendly and respectful when I first met him in

1996,'' said Touch Seang Tana, a Cambodian government official. ``His

English was not so good at the time, but he managed to communicate not only

with words but also with body language.''

 

For his part, Iwashige says working in war-torn Cambodia is as challenging

as the work he did for the student movement during his university days in

the 1960s.

 

In Kratie, an inauguration ceremony for the new center is expected within

weeks. As a base for dolphin watching, the facility is expected to play a

key role in regional development and nature studies for visitors, and

Iwashige plans to teach Japanese and environmental studies to local

children.

 

``The dolphin is a symbol of the environment that even kids can easily

understand,'' he said. ``I want to make the best of my experience so that we

can hand down to future generations an environment where humans and dolphins

live side by side.''

 

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