The baiji is gone. An international expedition of 30 scientists has traveled 1,669 miles for six weeks along Yangtze River in search of fresh water dolphin which was threatened with extinction. There have not found a single specimen of the whale.
The baiji, a freshwater dolphin living in the Yangtze River for twenty million years, was finally extinguished.
The main cause is the noise pollution of water due to the heavy maritime traffic on the Yangtze River. I have already spoken of here din World of Silence and damage it causes to marine mammals that are so spot underwater acoustics. In the case of the Yangtze, the baiji had to cope more fishing nets in Lesquer they choked, and industrial and agricultural waste discharged into the River.
Human activity has been due in less than one hundred years of this quiet and peaceful species that lived in this river for twenty million years. Hopefully the St. Lawrence belugas can survive longer than the Yangtze River baiji.
For more information:
1. The river dolphin died (Liberation)
2. Requiem for a Freshwater Dolphin (Scientific American)
3. Shock as dolphin Declared extinct (BBC News)
4. Baiji (Wikipedia)
Credit: Institute of Hydrobiology, Wuhan, China
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