Posted on 12/18/2006 9:06:19 AM PST by Alter Kaker
The first species to be erased from this planet’s great and ancient Order of Cetaceans in modern times is not one of the charismatic sea mammals that have long been the focus of conservation campaigns, like the sperm whale or bottlenose dolphin.
It appears to be the baiji, a white, nearly blind denizen of the Yangtze River in China.
On Wednesday, an expedition in search of any baiji, run by Chinese biologists and baiji.org, a Swiss foundation, ended empty-handed after six weeks of patrolling its onetime waters in the middle and lower stretches of the river, the baiji’s only known habitat.
The Yangtze, Asia’s longest waterway and thought to be akin to the Amazon long ago in its biological richness, now has a dominant species: the 400 million (and counting) people busily plying its waters and industrializing its banks.
For some 20 million years, the baiji, also called the white-flag dolphin, frequented the Yangtze’s sandy shallows, using sonar to catch fish in the silty flow.
In the last few decades, the dolphin’s numbers plunged as rapidly as the Chinese economy surged. The Yangtze’s sandy shallows, which the baiji frequented, have largely been dredged for shipping.
The baiji sought fish that have been netted or driven from the river by pollution. And its sonar may have been disrupted by the propeller noise from boats above. A 1997 survey counted 13 baiji in the river. None of the dolphins survive in captivity.
In a telephone interview from Wuhan, China, August Pfluger, the founder of baiji.org, said it was a shame that more attention had not shifted from the oceans’ more abundant cetaceans to the plight of those that live in rivers and are now essentially trapped, unable to escape human activity.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
For some reason, I keep thinking that "the white flag dolphin" ought to be found in French rivers...
I've heard the pollution in China, all across the country, is nauseating. Don't go there if you have any type of respiratory problem.
It's pretty darn tasty . . . especially with a side of baby seal brains. : )
"Passenger Pigeon" bump.
Ok, go find me a dodo, a tarpan or a passenger pigeon.
I look at that photo and say, "You're a magnificent creature, and I love you."
Judging by the looks of that thing, I'd say it's extinct due to lack of access to beer.
This calls for a new and extremely drastic global environmental treaty from which China will be completely exempt.
Beat me to it!
Sorry for the inconveni....
As for the Dodo's look at Democrat Underground. Can't help you with the Tarpan and most bridges in any city for pigeons :) (Tongue in cheek/ off) .
Seriously, at least consider this. Even the Over-the-top psycho North Koreans who watch their border better than any other nation on earth can not see or stop people from smuggling in and out fo their country from South or North. Is it not at least POSSIBLE to CONSIDER that we, mere humans, who can not even accurately count people in the most advanced of nations, could POSSIBLY miss seeing one of these unusual, and admitedly rare, dolphins in an ocean bigger and deeper than in any of the aformentioned counting sceaniarios???
"I often find it humerous when announcements like this are stated and then the animal all of a sudden shows up and in numbers. They are just about as credible as the global warming liars."
Seen any passenger pigeons lately?
I'm just cracking up over that one - lol! : )
see post 31
20 million years is a good run for the River Dolphin, though!!! ;)
I was in Yugoslavia and Hungary in the early 80's before the iron curtain fell. The water pollution was atrocious. Communism has a crappy record of environmentalism, yet you never hear anything about it. It takes the money of capitalism to be able to afford clean air and water.
If you read the article, the researchers didn't claim that there isn't a single white dolphin left in the Yangtze. What they claimed was that if there are any, then there are only a tiny handful, not enough to perpetuate the species. That means that if the species isn't in fact extinct, it will be very shortly.
I did a job in Beijing last year, in the southwest of the 5th ring road, and you would not believe the sewage in the man made river that runs through it!
the river was bluish grey, smelled awful, and at each bridge that crossed it, there was a gazebo where lovers met at lunch time!
Ys, Honey, lets go to the dump to make out at lunch time!
Those Commies know how to deal with Environmentalist Wackos.
mmmm...baby seal...whack 'em, stack 'em, and pack 'em!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.