Dongting Lake: Spring 2004: Autopsy found lethal levels of pollutants Provincial Yangtze finless porpoise Reserves Satellite image of Tian-e-Zhou (Swan) Oxbow Lake: Home to a population of 25 Yangtze finless porpoises

Legal Protection within China

Chinese authorities are presently upgrading the Yangtze finless porpoise's status from the Second to First Order of Protected Animals in China. This means that the species will soon receive the same legal protection as the baiji, panda, tiger and Chinese sturgeon. This legislation is designed to prohibit the capture and sale of the animals, it does not protect them from the most serious threats they face in the river: namely collision with boats, destructive fishing practices, industrial and agricultural pollution.

Threats

The Yangtze finless porpoise occurs in the same sections of the Yangtze River as the baiji and faces a similar range of threats. Although their population is still much higher than the baiji's, Chinese scientists have concluded from survey and other data that their population has been rapidly declining for several decades. Their decline may be attributed to a combination of factors, which either kill the porpoises directly or affect them indirectly by reducing the quality of their habitat. A major threat is through entanglement in passive fishing gear, causing the animals to drown. The porpoises also were at risk from harmful (rolling hook) fishing gear, but rolling hooks have now been banned. The illegal and highly unsustainable practice of fishing with electricity has become widespread during the past 15 years and is a major cause of porpoise mortality. Over-fishing to feed the increasing human population also reduces the availability of the porpoise's prey, making it harder for them to get enough food. Intensification of river traffic has meant increased risk of death through collision with boats and their propellers. The porpoises have also been indirectly affected by increased levels of engine noise from the boats, which interferes with their own sounds used for social interaction and for locating food. Over 1300 tributary lakes that were once connected to the Yangtze have been cut off by dams. These barriers have obstructed natural migration patterns and have made important feeding and breeding areas inaccessible. New dam construction work exposes porpoises to underwater explosives and will result in further fatalities. Moreover, the banks of the Yangtze have been greatly modified to prevent flooding of adjacent land. Such projects have had great impacts on the ecosystem, both during construction and from the resulting habitat change. Water pollution is another serious problem, as some 15.6 billion cubic meters of waste water are discharged into the Yangtze every year, most of which is untreated sewage and industrial effluent. The former results in reduced oxygen levels in the water and consequent reductions in fish numbers, the latter includes many poisons that are liable to accumulate and kill fish and porpoises alike.

Population and Rate of Decline

Surveys before 1991 indicated that there were approximately 2700 finless porpoises in the Yangtze River. More recent data from 1997 indicates that there are less than 2000 animals remaining and the population is declining at a rate of 7% per year.

Distribution

Despite its dramatic population decline, the Yangtze finless porpoise is still found throughout much of its historical range. Their distribution covers approximately 1700km of the river's middle and lower reaches from Yichang (near the Three Gorges) to Liuhekou (near the estuary in Shanghai) and includes Poyang and Dongting tributary lakes. Surveys in 1997 identified nine finless porpoise hot spots: Balijiankou, Sanjiangkou, Xintankou, Xuewenzhou, Fuxinzhou, Chibi, Chenglingji, Sunliangzhou and Ouchikou. Porpoises tend to congregate at the mouths of large tributaries where prey species are known to occur in their highest densities. These areas are also centres of high fishing activity and vessel traffic.

Provincial Yangtze Finless Porpoise Reserves

Finless porpoise reserves have been established within Poyang and Dongting lakes. However, the greatest densities of porpoises have been observed just outside of the reserve boundaries, at the mouths of these two large tributaries.

Relatively high densities of porpoises have been recorded within the Baiji Reserves at Shishou City, Xin-Lou, Tongling and Zhengjiang, but at present there is no official mandate to include the species under their mantle of protection.

In response to the porpoises rapid decline and lack of official protection in the main Yangtze channel, Chinese scientists have tried to establish an ex-situ population in the Tian-e-Zhou Semi Natural Baiji Reserve. This isolated oxbow was originally intended for the ex-situ conservation of baiji. Today twenty-five porpoises live in the reserve and are successfully giving birth to an average of two calves per year.

Baiji Protection Stations

The five Baiji Protection Stations in Jianli, Chenglingji, Hukou, Wuhu and Zhengjiang also monitor finless porpoise numbers and assist with porpoise strandings.

Yangtze Finless Porpoise Conservation Management

The porpoise reserves are managed by the Provincial Fisheries Bureau of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, who are in turn advised by research teams from the Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology and Nanjing Normal University. The conservation work is carried out by government officials, university scientists and often ex-fishermen.

Daily conservation duties should include patrols of all the protected areas, but boats are expensive to run and lack of funding means that this is not always possible. Vital research work on porpoise numbers, distribution patterns and behavioural ecology has also been suspended in recent years due to lack of funding.

For the time being the reserves initiatives in Dongting and Poyang Lakes are nothing more than "paper reserves". Funding needs to be found to enable staff to enforce regulations against destructive fishing practices and to re-launch vital porpoise abundance, distribution and behavioural ecology research projects.

Future In-Situ Conservation Work

The Yangtze is one of the world’s busiest waterways. It continues to suffer massive habitat degradation and the associated human activities are the main threat to the porpoise’s survival. The greatest dangers include illegal and unsustainable electro-fishing practices, engineering explosions for maintaining navigation channels, intensifying boat traffic and pollution.

The IUCN's 2002 - 2010 Action Plan for the World's Cetaceans recommends that a full status assessment of the Yangtze finless porpoise' population should be conducted as soon as possible and that the species should be monitored on a long term basis through surveys, acoustical monitoring and radio tracking. Only when scientists know more about their numbers, individual home ranges and seasonal movements, can they define critical areas of habitat for protection and develop a comprehensive conservation management plan that will halt the species decline.

Specialists who attended the <<Workshop on the Conservation of China's Baiji and Yangtze Finless Porpoise 2004>> unanimously agreed that a full survey of the porpoise's present 1700km range should be launched as quickly as possible to establish its current population and size. The baiji.org Foundation is presently organizing such a survey for September 2005.

Future Ex-Situ Conservation Work (Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Lake)

There is some concern that the Tian-e-Zhou porpoise population is severely inbred. Despite their ability to successfully reproduce in the reserve, the populations long-term viability is questionable. If this population is to be used to re-stock the dwindling mainstream population in the future, steps need to be taken to improve their genetic diversity.

Measures also need to be taken to improve the quality of the reserve habitat for the resident porpoises. Baiji.org has designed a series best-practice initiatives that will work towards achieving this goal over the next few years.

The Greatest Challenge of All

One of the biggest hurdles conservationists will face in the future is going to be changing the attitudes of local people towards the Yangtze finless porpoise. Unlike the baiji, the species receives no benefit from existing cultural bias. The Yangtze finless porpoise's local name means river pig and is associated in traditional mythology with ugliness, cruelty and foolishness. The difference in perceived values means that local people are less concerned about harming the porpoises and officials are less prepared to invest resources in the development of reserves. Some changes can be expected when the animal is upgraded to a first order species. However, transforming the porpoise into a national treasure will be an enormous challenge to both scientists and conservationists.

Entrenched views based on centuries of folklore and tradition will only be changed through increased public education and awareness. Baiji.org intends to publicise the Yangtze population's global significance as the only known freshwater porpoise at every opportunity through every available forum.