Tuesday July 14, 2026
IUCN —
The Mekong Delta’s approximately 700-km coastline supports one of Southeast Asia’s most productive aquaculture sectors—and one of its most climate-exposed. Rising sea surface temperatures, increasingly erratic rainfall, and accelerating saltwater intrusion are compounding chronic pressures on coastal farming systems.
For mud crab (Scylla serrata) farms, this convergence of stressors translates increases biosecurity risk. When pond water is exchanged daily without filtration or treatment, disease outbreaks become more frequent, and the window for crab fattening cycles has narrowed as heat stress reduces feed conversion efficiency and increases mortality.
Traditional extensive and semi-intensive crab farming systems, which rely on tidal flushing as their primary water management mechanism, are ill-equipped to respond to this trajectory. Addressing it requires a different approach that reduces dependence on ambient water quality while maintaining the economic opportunities that coastal smallholders need.