China's white dolphin declared functionally extinct

[Anonymous]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/12 ... index.html

China's white dolphin called extinct after 20 million years

BEIJING, China (AP) -- An expedition searching for a rare Yangtze River dolphin ended Wednesday without a single sighting and with the team's leader saying one of the world's oldest species was effectively extinct.

The white dolphin known as baiji, shy and nearly blind, dates back some 20 million years. Its disappearance is believed to be the first time in a half-century, since hunting killed off the Caribbean monk seal, that a large aquatic mammal has been driven to extinction.

A few baiji may still exist in their native Yangtze habitat in eastern China but not in sufficient numbers to breed and ward off extinction, said August Pfluger, the Swiss co-leader of the joint Chinese-foreign expedition.

"We have to accept the fact, that the Baiji is functionally extinct. We lost the race," Pfluger said in a statement released by the expedition. "It is a tragedy, a loss not only for China, but for the entire world. We are all incredibly sad."

Overfishing and shipping traffic, whose engines interfere with the sonar the baiji uses to navigate and feed, are likely the main reasons for the mammal's decline, Pfluger said. Though the Yangtze is polluted, water samples taken by the expedition every 30 miles did not show high concentrations of toxic substances, the statement said.

For nearly six weeks, Pfluger's team of 30 scientists scoured a 1,000-mile heavily trafficked stretch of the Yangtze, where the baiji once thrived. The expedition's two boats, equipped with high-tech binoculars and underwater microphones, trailed each other an hour apart without radio contact so that a sighting by one vessel would not prejudice the other.

Around 400 baiji were believed to be living in the Yangtze in the 1980s. The last full-fledged search, in 1997, yielded 13 confirmed sightings, and a fisherman claimed to have seen a baiji in 2004, Pfluger said in an earlier interview.

At least 20 to 25 baiji would now be needed to give the species a chance to survive, the group's statement said, citing Wang Ding, a hydrobiologist and China's foremost campaigner for the baiji.

Pfluger, an economist by training who later went to work for an environmental group, was a member of the 1997 expedition and recalls the excitement of seeing a baiji cavorting in the waters near Dongting Lake.

"It marked me," he said in an interview Monday. He went on to set up the baiji.org Foundation to save the dolphin.

That goal having evaporated, Pfluger said his foundation would turn to teaching sustainable fishing practices and trying to save other freshwater dolphins. The expedition also surveyed one of those dwindling species, the Yangtze finless porpoise, finding less than 400 of them.

"The situation of the finless porpoise is just like that of the baiji 20 years ago," Wang, the Chinese scientist, said in the statement. "Their numbers are declining at an alarming rate. If we do not act soon they will become a second baiji."

Pfluger and an occasional online diary kept by expedition members traced a dispiriting situation, as day after day team members engaged in a fruitless search for the baiji.

"At first the atmosphere was 'Let's go. Let's go save this damn species,"' Pfluger said. "As the weeks went on we got more desperate and had to motivate each other."

 

[dnorton1978]

Sad Sad story.

 

[Anonymous]

Kind of off topic, since most of us don't keep dolphin nor freshwater mammal...

Seriously, in a few thousand year, we human race will also be functionally extinct. The differenece is that we did it to ourselves, instead of some pest or disease.

 

[shavo]

if it was kinda off topic why did you read it and respond?

sad story I hate hearing things like this.

 

[Anonymous]

So one of the species of "Last Chance to See" is now gone. Will the kakapo be next?

 

[Anonymous]

if it was kinda off topic why did you read it and respond?

....

I would move it to The Sump if I can.

 

[Anonymous]

 

[shavo]

Hey Dupa, a species of Dolphin is being eliminated from this planet and you say basically who cares move it to a different forum "it's not on topic since nobody has a dolphin", Why don't you go to the sump? This is more important than any little problem you can come up with with your tank.

 

[stubbsz]

He just said it was off topic and should be moved to another forum. It's pretty far from a General Reef Keeping discussion after all... no need to get offensive. People dying in Iraq is probably really important to a lot of us but
I don't want to see it being discussed here.

Peace.
-Adrian

 

[ChrisRD]

Dolphins live in saltwater so that's close enough for me. :wink:

Personally, I appreciate "general interest" posts like this and I'm not moving it.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Dupa, a species of Dolphin is being eliminated from this planet and you say basically who cares move it to a different forum "it's not on topic since nobody has a dolphin", Why don't you go to the sump? This is more important than any little problem you can come up with with your tank.

I am not saying I don't care, or that it is not important. Remember I respond to it? I am just saying that it is off-topic, IMHO, and that I would move it to an Off Topic forum if I can.

This specific dophin lives in freshwater, and it is sad that the Chinese don't do much about these mammals.

 

[shavo]

IMO IME I had a bad day in work and your post read funny to me. I apologize for being petty. Your right, but I hate these stories. my fault
your tank problems are important and if i can help anytime i would. they're just as important as the freshwater dolphins
sorry man

 

[Chubosco]

It's just the beginning for China. So heavy is the pollution in the air, land, and water people are dying by the 1,000s daily. This is an understatement. Though some programs to fight pollution have been launched, they fall far short of any kind of serious change or oversight. In fact, in any large city in China during a calm day visibility is less than two blocks.

 

[Chubosco]

O.K., now that I have read the entire post I would not have posted because of the in-fighting. SORRY!

 

[Anonymous]

I've had the same problem wit mine. But I found that strontium supplements helped with dolphin spawning and feeding them Moorish Idols really brings out their color.

 

[Anonymous]

I've had the same problem wit mine. But I found that strontium supplements helped with dolphin spawning and feeding them Moorish Idols really brings out their color.

:lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Which radioisotope of strontium are you using? The one I use make the bone glow under the skin and muscle...

 

[Chubosco]

Please use U-234. The heaviness fills them up requiring less feeding.