*NEWS*LAST CHANCE FOR CHINA’S DOLPHIN

[Anonymous]

Last chance for China’s dolphin
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.

[Author]

June 28, 2006 at 10:38 AM