BBC Last chance for China's dolphin

[Guest guest]

> * Last chance for China's dolphin *

>A rescue plan is developed for the Yangtze River

>dolphin, probably the world's most endangered

>mammal.

>Full story:

>http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/5122074.stm

>

Last chance for China's dolphin

By Richard Black

Environment correspondent, BBC News website

 

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. "

 

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.

 

Richard.Black-INTERNET

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/5122074.stm

 

Published: 2006/06/27 23:02:07 GMT

 

© BBC MMVI

 

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