Last chance for China's dolphin

[frigidmagi]

BBC

Zoologists have developed a plan to save the Yangtze River dolphin, probably the world's most endangered mammal, from extinction.

They hope to take some dolphins from the Yangtze and rear them in a nearby lake, protected from fishermen.

The species is threatened by overfishing which removes its food, industrialisation, boat collisions, and through being caught in fishing nets.

The most recent surveys found only 17 living individuals.

Also known as the baiji and Chinese lake dolphin, Lipotes vexillifer is listed as Critically Endangered on the internationally recognised Red List of Threatened Species, which describes it as "probably the most endangered cetacean in the world".

Safe haven

Late last year an international group of conservation zoologists held a workshop in San Diego aiming to develop a coherent rescue plan.

That plan has now been published by a group led by Samuel Turvey from the Institute of Zoology, part of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

"It's been suggested for a long time that the only way to save them from dying out is to set up a closely monitored breeding population under semi-natural breeding conditions," he told the BBC News website.

"The plan is to set up a reserve in an oxbow lake 21km long which was part of the Yangtze until the 1970s."

There is massive human population pressure, industralisation, overfishing, boat collisions, bycatch, and various dams

Samuel Turvey
Tian-e-Zhou lake already houses another freshwater cetacean, the Yangtze finless porpoise, so conditions are likely to suit the baiji.

There are fish in the lake to provide food for the dolphins; and although there may be some human fishing, it is likely to be on a much smaller scale than in the Yangtze itself.

There, the pressure of China's burgeoning population have brought stocks of some of the baiji's prey species to one thousandth of their pre-industrial levels, Dr Turvey said.

"There is massive human population pressure, industralisation, overfishing. Boat collisions have had a huge impact, then there's bycatch, and various dams of which the Three Gorges is just the best known.

"That was another nail in the coffin, but the species has been declining for decades; during the Great Leap Forward there was even a factory established to make bags out of dolphin skin."

ZSL and its collaborating organisations anticipate the endorsement of their plan, and are starting to look for funds.

Costs could amount to between £200,000 and £300,000 ($365,000 and $545,000) for the first year's operations.

Boats are needed to catch the dolphins, helicopters to transfer them to Tian-e-Zhou. Holding pens need to be constructed, veterinary staff provided, and an inventory made of fish stocks.

The rescue plan speaks of conducting five dolphin capture operations in the Yangtze within the next three years "...in order to establish a viable ex-situ breeding population of baiji at Tian-e-Zhou before the Yangtze population undergoes a further decline or becomes extinct".

The long-term plan would be to re-introduce them to the Yangtze, but only when the prospects of them thriving there have risen.

I'll be honest, I don't have high hopes for this. In fact it may very well be to late already. Adois to flipper's Chinese cousin. It was cool having ya.

[Mayabird]

At this point, with only 17 individuals and basically no habitat to go back to (the whooping crane and California condor had it better, since they can fly and aren't constrained to one river basin), it might be better to just preserve some tissue in the hopes of cloning them sometime in the distant future.

DOLPHIN SKIN HANDBAGS?!?

[Batman]

And yet another species dies thanks to humanities carelessnes.
And I second Maya's WTF at dolphin skin handbags.

[Shark Bait]

Ok gonna play the devil's advocate here, river dolphins not many species of them, and thats not for lack of rivers. While dolphin skin handbags are kinda odd really no stranger than say eel skin wallets and such. I dont think the extinction of this dolphin is caused only by humans. yes humans played a role, but the dolphins are also very highly specialized which prevents them from adapting to other situations and anctually makes them weaker overall. then look at a species of animal like say the blue shark its hard to find a scrap of semi temprate water where they are not. so yeah while its kinda sad the Chineese have effectively killed off this dolphin, dont forget that the animal was in a bad spot to begin with.

that being said i'd like to admit i'm probably the worst Marine biologist ever.

[Josh]

To back Bait's point, while we were a contributory factor, unless the species evolved beyond its niche, it was going to catch the evolutionary bullet at some point, most likely. Furthermore, in our favor, we're the only species around that's actually trying to save other species from extinction in this fashion.

[LadyTevar]

I admit, there may have eventually been a need for the dolphin to evolve... but human actions moved far faster than evolution. We're talking about a river that could had flowed for a few millions years, and probably could have continued in the same course for a million more. Baring a sudden earthquake, anything changing the river would have happend slowly enough for the dolphin to adapt.

Humans over-fishing the river, and the damming of the river has a bigger contribution than you think, since it's only taken what... 2000 yrs? 3000? to get to this point?

[Josh]

I'll concede then that humans were the cause here, but any number of catastrophic events likewise could've killed this species off.

I'm not arguing that we shouldn't protect species where we can, but evolutionary paths that lock species into a limited area will get them killed sooner or later. That's how life works.

[LadyTevar]

I'll concede then that humans were the cause here, but any number of catastrophic events likewise could've killed this species off.

I'm not arguing that we shouldn't protect species where we can, but evolutionary paths that lock species into a limited area will get them killed sooner or later. That's how life works.

There is always the chance that what made them River Dolphin could have made them into something else on the evolutionary time scale.