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24 Nov 06 INTERVIEW - Chinese River Dolphin Almost Certainly Extinct Story by Ben Blanchard National Geographic 14 Dec 06 China's Rare River Dolphin Now Extinct, Experts Announce Stefan Lovgren WWF 14 Dec 06 Rare Yangtze river dolphin under increasing threat Yahoo News 13 Dec 06 Rare white dolphin declared as extinct By Charles Hutzler, Associated Press Writer BEIJING - A rare, nearly blind white dolphin that survived for millions of years is effectively extinct, an international expedition declared Wednesday after ending a fruitless six-week search of its Yangtze River habitat. The baiji would be the first large aquatic mammal driven to extinction since hunting and overfishing killed off the Caribbean monk seal in the 1950s. For the baiji, the culprit was a degraded habitat--busy ship traffic, which confounds the sonar the dolphin uses to find food, and overfishing and pollution in the Yangtze waters of eastern China, the expedition said. "The baiji is functionally extinct. We might have missed one or two animals but it won't survive in the wild," said August Pfluger, a Swiss economist turned naturalist who helped put together the expedition. "We are all incredibly sad." The baiji dates back 20 million years. Chinese called it the "goddess of the Yangtze." For China, its disappearance symbolizes how unbridled economic growth is changing the country's environment irreparably, some environmentalists say. "It's a tremendously sad day when any species goes extinct. It becomes more of a public tragedy to lose a large, charismatic species like the river dolphin," said Chris Williams, manager of river basin conservation for the World Wildlife Fund in Washington. "The loss of a large animal like a river dolphin is often a harbinger for what's going on in the larger system as whole. It's not only the loss of a beautiful animal but an indication that the way its habitat is being managed, the way we're interacting with the natural environment of the river is deeply flawed ... if a species like this can't survive." Randall Reeves, chairman of the Swiss-based World Conservation Union's Cetacean Specialist Group, who took part in the Yangtze mission, said expedition participants were surprised at how quickly the dolphins disappeared. "Some of us didn't want to believe that this would really happen, especially so quickly," he said. "This particular species is the only living representative of a whole family of mammals. This is the end of a whole branch of evolution." The damage to the baiji's habitat is also affecting the Yangtze finless porpoise, whose numbers have fallen to below 400, the expedition found. "The situation of the finless porpoise is just like that of the baiji 20 years ago," the group said in a statement citing Wang Ding, a Chinese hydrobiologist and co-leader of the expedition. "Their numbers are declining at an alarming rate. If we do not act soon they will become a second baiji." Pfluger said China's Agriculture Ministry, which approved the expedition, had hoped the baiji would be another panda, an animal brought back from the brink of extinction in a highly marketable effort that bolstered the country's image. The expedition was the most professional and meticulous ever launched for the mammal, Pfluger said. The team of 30 scientists and crew from China, the United States and four other countries searched 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. When there was fog, he said, the boats waited for the mist to clear to make sure they took every opportunity to spot the mammal. Around 400 baiji were believed to be living in the Yangtze in the early 1980s, when China was just launching the free-market reforms that have transformed its economy. The last full-fledged search, in 1997, yielded 13 confirmed sightings, and a fisherman claimed to have seen a baiji in 2004. At least 20 to 25 baiji would now be needed to give the species a chance to survive, said Wang. For Pfluger, the baiji's demise is a personal defeat. A member of the 1997 expedition, he recalls the excitement of seeing a baiji cavorting in the waters near Dongting Lake. "It marked me," he said. He went on to set up the baiji.org Foundation to save the dolphin. In recent years, Pfluger said, scientists like the eminent zoologist George Schaller told him to stop his search, saying the baiji's "lost, forget it." During the latest expedition, an online diary kept by team members traced a dispiriting situation, as day after day they failed to spot a single baiji. Even in the expedition's final days, members believed they would find a specimen, trolling a "hotspot" below the industrial city of Wuhan where Baiji were previously sighted, Pfluger said. "Hope dies last," he said. PlanetArk 24 Nov 06 INTERVIEW - Chinese River Dolphin Almost Certainly Extinct Story by Ben Blanchard CHINA: November 24, 2006 BEIJING - A rare freshwater dolphin unique to China's Yangtze River is almost certainly extinct, a Swiss conservationist said after failing to spot a single animal on an expedition which ended on Wednesday. The baiji, traditionally thought by the Chinese to be a river god, used to live along China's longest river, but development, overfishing and shipping have proved lethal. "Unfortunately the baiji is functionally extinct. We did not see any animals in the river," August Pfluger, chief executive of the baiji.org Foundation, told Reuters in an interview this week. "If there are maybe one or two or three left in the river, we don't believe that they have any chance to survive. We were obviously too late. For me, it's a tragedy in terms of conservation. We lost the race." The long-beaked, nearly blind baiji is related to other freshwater species found in the Mekong, Indus, Ganges and Amazon rivers. In the late 1970s, scientists believed several hundred baiji were still alive, but by 1997 a survey listed just 13 sightings. The last confirmed sighting was in 2004 and the last captive baiji, Qi Qi, died in 2002. The Chinese government had set up a reserve in a lake in central Hubei province to look after captured baiji, but failed to find any. "The strategy of the Chinese government was a good one, but we didn't have time to put it into action," added Pfluger, who has only once seen a baiji in the wild, in 1997. Chinese view the baiji as the reincarnation of a princess who refused to marry a man she did not love and was drowned by her father for shaming the family. "The baiji was considered a goddess of the Yangtze River. This goddess obviously is not here anymore," said Pfluger. "I think in the last few years the government has put more attention on the issue, but we have all been too late." The six-week expedition, made up of two ships and 30 scientists from Japan, China, the United States and Switzerland, did spot some 300 of another threatened species, the Yangtze finless porpoise, far less than they had thought they would see. Though the baiji reserve could not offer the dolphin sanctuary, Pfluger said 28 finless porpoises are "doing well" there and even breeding. "We must redouble our efforts to save the Yangtze finless porpoise too," he said. WWF 14 Dec 06 Rare Yangtze river dolphin under increasing threat Beijing, China: A rare river dolphin may be one step closer to extinction as scientists fail to count any of the endangered species along China's Yangtze River. An international expedition, supported by WWF, covered over 1,000km--from Yichang to Shanghai, without spotting one Yangtze river dolpin, or Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer). "Not spotting Baiji dolphins on this expedition does not necessarily mean that the species is extinct because the search was conducted in a relatively short period of time over a large area of the river," said Wang Limin, Director of WWF China's Wuhan office. "However, we are extremely concerned by the search results that indicate how degraded the freshwater environment is in the Yangtze." Polluted waters, intensive fishing activity and busy shipping traffic have contributed to the demise of the species, as well as the Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides). "The search also observed the dramatic decrease in the finless porpoise population, which may follow the same fate of Baiji dolphin in the near future if no drastic conservation action is taken," cautioned Wang. In China, WWF is working to restore the Yangtze River basin to improve freshwater habitats and resources. In 2004, a joint WWF-HSBC project led to the regular opening of a dyke at Tian'e-zhou Oxbow Lake, reconnecting it to the Yangtze after 50 years. This has boosted water levels and quality in the lake, home to the Yangtze finless porpoise, and is allowing the natural migration of fish during their breeding season. "The protection of the Yangtze's cetaceans is dependent upon the protection the river's ecosystem" said Dermot O'Gorman, WWF's country representative in China. "This requires all of us to work together to restore a living river not only for the cetaceans but also for its people." END NOTES: The critically endangered Yangtze river dolphin, or baiji, can only live in freshwater and has very poor eyesight. It once lived in the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Fuchun River, and in Dongting and Poyang Lakes, China. Today, it is the world's most endangered cetacean. | Of the seven species of dolphins worldwide, four are found only in freshwater: the Ganges river Dolphin (Platanista gangetica), the Yangtze river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer), the Indus river dolphin (Platanista minor) and the Amazon dolphin (Inia geoffrensis). In addition, there are two river dolphins and one river porpoise that can be found in both marine and freshwater, the tucuxi, Sotalia fluviates in South America and the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) and finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) in Asia. The Yangtze freshwater dolphin expedition was organized by the Hydrobiology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science, the Yangtze Fisheries Resources Administration Commission and the Baiji Foundation, with support from WWF, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Britain?s Zoological Society of London and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. National Geographic 14 Dec 06 China's Rare River Dolphin Now Extinct, Experts Announce Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News The rare Chinese river dolphin has gone extinct, according to scientists who could not find a single one of the animals during a six-week search on China's Yangtze River. The small, nearly blind white dolphin, also known as the baiji, was nicknamed "the goddess of the Yangtze." "It's possible that we missed one or two animals [during the search], but we can say the baiji is functionally extinct," August Pfluger, a Swiss economist-turned-naturalist who financed the expedition, said in a telephone interview from Wuhan, China. "If there are any baiji left in the river, they won't have any chance of survival." If Pfluger's team is correct, the baiji will be the first large aquatic mammal to have gone extinct since hunting and overfishing killed off the Caribbean monk seal in the 1950s. Yangtze Dams, Ship Traffic to Blame? The delicate dolphin, which dates back 20 million years, was found only in China's longest river, the Yangtze. Using high-tech optical instruments and underwater microphones on two research vessels, the international team of 30 scientists and crew scoured almost 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) of the river, from Yichang near the Three Gorges Dam to Shanghai, for any signs of the dolphin. "When we started, we were really optimistic about finding them, but as each day went by it became increasingly clear that there are no baiji left," Pfluger said. The dolphin's population had plummeted from about 400 in the late 1980s to less than 100 in the mid-1990s. The last search for the animal, in 1997, yielded 13 sightings. One fisher claimed to have seen a baiji in September 2004. The baiji's demise is attributed to overfishing, dam-building, environmental degradation, and ship collisions. The large-ship traffic on the Yangtze, one of the world's busiest waterways, confounds the sonar that the nearly blind dolphin uses to find food, Pfluger said. "When you're on the river and you see so many ships, you feel that an animal like a dolphin does not have any chance of survival," he said. "That's a personal feeling, not a scientific statement." Although the Yangtze suffers from heavy pollution, it is less polluted than other rivers in China, such as the Yellow River. Water samples taken by the scientists did not show toxic pollutants in concentrations high enough to have killed the baiji. Beginning of "Wave of Extinctions"? Zeb Hogan, who studies large river fish in Asia, says unprecedented use of freshwater rivers has led to the decline of populations of many aquatic species. "Perhaps nowhere is this pattern more apparent than in populations of species such as river dolphins and large-bodied fish," said Hogan, an associate research biologist at the Mekong Wetlands Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use Program, who is based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. "Globally, a pattern has emerged; these large aquatic animals are disappearing," Hogan said. "The world's river dolphins and large freshwater fish face the biggest threats, including overfishing, dams, navigation projects, pollution, and habitat destruction." The extinction of the baiji dolphin should serve as a wake-up call that more needs to be done to protect river life, Hogan added. "Unless concrete steps are taken soon to better protect these vulnerable species, this is the beginning of a wave of extinctions that is likely to occur over the next 20 to 30 years." Finless Porpoise There are now five species of freshwater dolphins left in the world, four of them living in major freshwater systems in Asia. All are critically endangered. During their search for the baiji, the scientists also surveyed the population of the endemic Yangtze finless porpoise. They found that there may be fewer than 400 animals left there. "We have to consider these animals in a better way than we did the baiji," said Pfluger, the expedition organizer. "We know that if the baiji was doing badly, the finless porpoise is doing badly too. This animal needs our action now. There is no time to waste." Yesterday, Pfluger said, he watched video footage that he had shot of Qi Qi, a male baiji who was rescued in 1980 and died in captivity in 2002 (see photo). "I consider myself a strong man," he said. "But when I saw that footage I cried for several minutes. It's just so terribly sad." links The Baiji Foundation website Related articles on Wild shores |
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