Yangtze finless porpoise

An expedition is searching China's great river for any trace of the baiji but it may be too late

Jonathan Watts on the Yangtze
Friday November 24, 2006
The Guardian (c)

"Many of its endemic species are near extinction, including the Chinese alligator, arguably the world's most endangered reptile; the Yangtze giant salamander, one of the world's largest amphibians; and two sturgeon species.

"The list is growing. Wang [China's leading baiji expert, Wang Ding] says China will add the finless porpoise - another Yangtze cetacean - to the endangered list this year. In less than a decade, the porpoise population has shrunk by two-thirds to about 1,000.

"When they write the environmental history of early 21st-century China, the freshwater dolphin expedition now plying the Yangtze river may be seen as man's farewell to an animal it once worshipped. A team of the world's leading marine biologists is making a last-gasp search for the baiji, a dolphin that was revered as the goddess of Asia's mightiest river but is now probably the planet's most endangered mammal.

"Pollution is fouling their habitat. Near Huaneng, the acrid smoke billowing out of a paper factory and coal-fired power plant is so pungent that the crew grimace more than half a mile away. The factory discharges an unceasing torrent of filthy water directly into the river.

"The completion of the Three Gorges dam has not helped. ....

Read more in "The Guardian":
<http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,1955885,00.html>