Baiji sighting
A Baiji has possibly been sighted on August 19th in the Yangtze close to Tongling city in Anhui Province.
A man saw a white object swimming in the river and filmed it. Professor Wang Ding from the Institute of Hydrobiology, Wuhan, commented on the film he could not give a 100 percent confirmation since the video was of poor quality and taken from a distance of about 1000 metres away.
The news spread widely over the media. The region is indeed known as a hotspot for Baiji. Scientists of the Institute of Hydrobiology will organise a small survey in the area the film was shot within the next few weeks to conduct further investigations. Should the Baiji sighting be confirmed, it will be crucial to organise an unbureaucratic, well-coordinated capture and transfer the Baiji as soon as possible into the dolphinarium of the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan.
The announcement of the Baiji's functional extinction in December 2006 caused a lively discussion in China about the Baiji issue. It has resulted in an increased public pressure to localise and rescue any possibly remaining Baiji with all available measures. This is why it is very important to verify every sighting. However, even if one or more baiji are left, August Pfluger, CEO of the baiji.org Foundation, and Wang Ding both say they still consider the animal as "functionally extinct." Any surviving baiji are unlikely to be able to find each other for breeding in the huge river and are threatened by ship traffic, overfishing and the increasing degradation of their habitat. In light of these facts, baiji.org is focusing all its efforts on the remaining finless porpoises to prevent them suffering the same fate as the Baiji. The projects in aid of the finless porpoise are concipated in such a way, that they also benefit remaining Baiji, possibly missed at the previous expedition.
Therefore, baiji.org Foundation supports the September survey and is
co-organizing another expedition in 2008.
Baiji – China's Yangtze River Dolphin
The Baiji (Yangtze River dolphin) occurs only in freshwater in the Yangtze River of China and it is on the brink of extinction. It has suffered a rapid and possibly irreversible decline due to extensive human exploitation of the Yangtze River. The baiji is classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This means that the species faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future. The baiji has also been declared a national treasure "of the first order" by the People’s Republic of China.
 Baiji's freshwater habitat: China's Yangtze River |
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Less than a century ago it was estimated that up to 5000 baiji lived in the Yangtze River. Surveys in 1985 and 1986 estimated the baiji population at around 300 individuals. However, the most recent survey conducted in 1997 recorded only 13 individuals. It is generally concluded that there are probably less than 100 baiji remaining in the wild. Previously the baiji occurred in 1700 km of the Yangtze River, from the magnificent Three Gorges all the way to the river mouth near Shanghai. Dolphins are no longer found in many areas where they were previously common.
The decline in the baiji population has been caused by extreme human pressure on its freshwater habitat. Baiji mortality is caused by illegal fishing using electricity and rolling hooks, blasting for riverside development and collisions with vessel traffic. In addition the river habitat is degraded by large-scale release of untreated industrial and agricultural pollution, over fishing and development of the river corridor.
Over the last 20 years Chinese and international scientists have devised various initiatives to attempt to halt the baiji decline but none have been successful. This failure can be largely attributed to lack of information on the baiji, ineffective project management and lack of funds.
Because of the extremely small population size, and the pervasive and increasing environmental degradation of the Yangtze River, recent efforts to conserve the baiji have focused on attempting to translocate all remaining animals from the main Yangtze River into the Tian-e-Zhou (Swan) oxbow lake near Shishou City. As threats can be more easily controlled and reduced in this ‘semi-natural reserve' it is hoped that animals may have a greater chance of survival than in the main river. At present no baiji have been translocated into the semi-natural reserve due to problems locating and capturing them. This strategy is known as "ex-situ" conservation.
Not all conservation biologists agree that the ex-situ strategy will increase the survival chances for the species and would prefer to see the Chinese try to protect the dolphin in its natural environment (in-situ conservation). However, Chinese scientists believe that at the present rate of degradation of the Yangtze environment and the intractable nature of the threats to the baiji, it is just not possible to improve the situation in the river sufficiently to ensure the species survival. They have therefore concluded that ex-situ conservation is the best option for the baiji river dolphin.
