Yangtze River Dolphin declared extinct
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 9:21 am
Sad. It's thought that a combination of the heave container ship traffic on the river and accidental killings in fishing nets doomed the species.
The Yangtze river dolphin was sufficiently distinct from other cetaceans to constitute its own mammal family.
Full article here.
The Yangtze river dolphin was sufficiently distinct from other cetaceans to constitute its own mammal family.
After more than 20 million years on the planet, the Yangtze river dolphin is today officially declared extinct, the first species of cetacean (whale, dolphin or porpoise) to be driven from this planet by human activity.
An intensive six-week search by an international team of marine biologists involving two boats that ploughed up and down the world's busiest river last December failed to find a single specimen.
Today, the scientific report of that expedition, published in the peer-reviewed journal of the Royal Society, Biology Letters, confirms the dolphin known as the baiji or white-fin in Chinese and celebrated for its pale skin and distinctive long snout, has disappeared.
Full article here.
