China Reports Sighting of "Extinct" Dolphin
Date: 30-Aug-07
Country: CHINA
The last confirmed sighting of the long-beaked, nearly
blind baiji was in 2004. After an international team failed to
find a single dolphin on a six-week expedition last year the
species was classified as critically endangered and possibly
extinct.
But the video from central Anhui province may renew slender
hopes for the survival of the creatures also known as
white-flag dolphins and traditionally considered a deity by
local people.
"I never saw such a big thing in the water before, so I
filmed it," dolphin-spotter Zeng Yujiang told Xinhua. "It was
about 1,000 meters (yards) away and jumped out of water several
times."
Wang Kexiong, of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences, said experts at the institute had
confirmed the footage was of a baiji.
The report did not say if there were any plans to try and
locate the dolphin again, or try and protect it from the river
hazards -- ranging from pollution and aggressive fishing to
heavy shipping traffic -- that originally decimated the
species.
In the late 1970s, scientists believed several hundred
baiji were still alive, but by 1997 a survey listed just 13
sightings. Found only in the Yangtze river, it is related to
freshwater species found in the Mekong, Indus, Ganges and
Amazon rivers.
The government has set up a reserve in a lake in central
Hubei province but failed to find any baiji to put in it. The
last captive dolphin, Qi Qi, died in 2002.
