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The Baiji Dolphin

A rare, freshwater Chinese dolphin that inspired legends has been declared “functionally extinct” by a team of researchers that could find no trace of it on a recent expedition on the Yangtze River.

The Baiji dolphin, which numbered in the hundreds as late as the 1970s, has not been spotted since 2004. A group of researchers recently searched its home, the Yangtze River, to see if it could find any remaining members of the species. While the group spotted roughly 300 of another endangered species – the finless porpoise – it found no evidence of the Baiji.

Chinese legend holds the Baiji was a river goddess, the incarnation of a princess who refused to marry a man she did not love and was therefore drowned by her father for bringing shame upon the family.

The species appears to have succumbed to a series of manmade threats: overfishing, development and shipping. Before the finless porpoise goes the same way, Chinese authorities are trying to protect it by giving 28 of the porpoises safe harbor in a lake reserve where they can breed.

For more information about this story, click here or visit http://www.baiji.org.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org