all but extinct, farewell, graceful Baiji
Aug. 11th, 2007 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonvoiceThis is old news, but I only just found out about it:
Functional Extinction of the Yangtze Freshwater Dolphins
The Xinhua News Agency announced on 4 December 2006 that no Chinese River Dolphins were detected in a six-week survey of the Yangtze River conducted by 30 researchers. The failure of the Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Expedition raised suspicions of the first unequivocal extinction of a cetacean species due to human action (some extinct baleen whale populations might not have been distinct species). Poor water and weather conditions may have prevented sightings, but expedition leaders declared it "functionally extinct" on 13 December 2006 as fewer are likely to be alive than are needed to propagate the species.
....
A report of the expedition was published online in the journal Biology Letters on August 7th, 2007, in which the authors conclude "We are forced to conclude that the baiji is now likely to be extinct, probably due to unsustainable by-catch in local fisheries"
Some reports suggest that information about the baiji and its demise is being suppressed in China.
From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangtze_Dolphin
Made third page news in our newspaper on Thursday. The first large vertebrate to go extinct for some time now, China covering it up so that the rest of the world isn't giving it much coverage, and the protector of the Yangtze, a beast of both myth, legend and beauty gone from the polluted waters it once protected.
Functional Extinction of the Yangtze Freshwater Dolphins
The Xinhua News Agency announced on 4 December 2006 that no Chinese River Dolphins were detected in a six-week survey of the Yangtze River conducted by 30 researchers. The failure of the Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Expedition raised suspicions of the first unequivocal extinction of a cetacean species due to human action (some extinct baleen whale populations might not have been distinct species). Poor water and weather conditions may have prevented sightings, but expedition leaders declared it "functionally extinct" on 13 December 2006 as fewer are likely to be alive than are needed to propagate the species.
....
A report of the expedition was published online in the journal Biology Letters on August 7th, 2007, in which the authors conclude "We are forced to conclude that the baiji is now likely to be extinct, probably due to unsustainable by-catch in local fisheries"
Some reports suggest that information about the baiji and its demise is being suppressed in China.
From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangtze_Dolphin
Made third page news in our newspaper on Thursday. The first large vertebrate to go extinct for some time now, China covering it up so that the rest of the world isn't giving it much coverage, and the protector of the Yangtze, a beast of both myth, legend and beauty gone from the polluted waters it once protected.
