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White-Fin Dolphin Declared Extinct - No Sightings Since 2004 |
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Written by D.L. McCracken
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Thursday, 04 January 2007 |
 We humans are a destructive lot and this week we begin to see the tragic results of the folly of our ways as we are told that we will no longer be graced with the company of the white-fin dolphin, a shy and beautiful creature who has been declared extinct. Not only gone but with the distinction of becoming the first aquatic mammal to be erased from this earth as a direct result of "human activity".
The white-fin dolphin, known in China as the baiji, was a fresh-water mammal who had lived and thrived in rivers across Planet Earth for 20 million years. They were doomed the moment humankind entered the first Industrial Age. In the end it was our propensity for abusing of our waters and land, our unregulated and uncaring frenetic industrialization and our disregard for the enviornment in which we live that led to the white-fin dolphin's demise. In other words, we have no one to blame but ourselves for this tragic loss.
This graceful all-white creature was listed in 1986 as one of the most endangered species on earth. That same year there were only 400 left and since 1997 that number dropped to under 150, all of them located in one river - China's Yangtze. Since 2004 there have been zero sightings.
Over the last six weeks a team of scientists have been searching the Yangtze River and have not been able to spot one dolphin.
Expedition leader August Pfluger an environmentalist who heads the website baiji.org stated, "We have to accept the fact that the baiji is extinct. It is a tragedy, a loss not only for China, but for the entire world". His search will continue but the hopes of the team are almost gone. The final white-fin dolphin in captivity died in 2002.
Experts are now turning their attentions and concerns to another mammal of the Yangtze - the finless porpoise whose numbers have dwindled to only 300, far less than was expected.
The United Nations has declared the Yangtze River as a dead zone because its water no longer contains enough oxygen to support life. "If the Yangtze river can not support the white-fin dolphin at present, maybe it can not support human beings in the future," said one scientist. "We must learn a lesson from it."
The question is - will we?
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