Pollution Leaves Beloved Dolphin Of Yangtze 'Functionally' Extinct

[ButterflyBlood]

SHANGHAI, Dec. 13 -- For millions of years, the Chinese river dolphin basked in the waters of the mighty Yangtze, a gray phantom more than six feet long with a sharp snout and tiny eyes. The endearing creature, which the Chinese call baiji, was the stuff of legend, a goddess to some, and the delight of fishermen who occasionally saw one break the water's surface.

But China's relentless growth closed in on the baiji over the past 25 years, fouling its habitat with sewage and filling the Yangtze with ships whose propellers disrupted the dolphin's sonar-based sensory system. The numbers declined year after year, until scientists estimated recently that only 50 were left along the river's 1,500-mile main course through central China. The baiji, they warned, risked extinction.

News came Wednesday that they were right: Development in China has in all likelihood extinguished the baiji, erasing the species from the planet. An expedition of some of the world's leading experts, equipped with sophisticated viewing equipment and ultra-sensitive microphones, announced it had ended its mission after five weeks on the river without detecting any sign of surviving baijis.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/13/AR2006121302039.html

[xchrom]

1. merry christmas.

[aaronbees]

2. A beautiful creature

Gone. :(

[hatrack]

3. Now back to you, Biff, with an exciting report on Christmas retail sales!

"Thanks Ashleigh! Looks like the American consumer kept the cash registers humming during this all-important holiday shopping season . . . . "

:puke:

[Strelnikov_]

4. "So Long, Been Good To Know Yuh . . .

An' I've got to be driftin' along."

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. Here's a pic...

Times like these I find I'm ashamed to be human. :(

[Coventina]

6. China doesn't give a fuck.

About people, animals, or anything.

:cry:

[The Stranger]

7. This is the end -- beautiful friend, the end.

[lovuian]

8. This Breaks my heart

:argh:

[The Stranger]

9. At the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows . . .

And at that very moment, we heard a loud whack!
From outside in the fields came a sickening smack
of an axe on a tree. Then we heard the tree fall.
The very last Truffula Tree of them all!

No more trees. No more Thneeds. No more work to be done.
So, in no time, my uncles and aunts, every one,
all waved me good-bye. They jumped into my cars
and drove away under the smoke-smuggered stars.

Now all that was left ´neath the bad-smelling sky
was my big empty factory... the Lorax... and I.

The Lorax said nothing. Just gave me a glance...
just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance...
as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants.
And I´ll never forget the grim look on his face
when he heisted himself and took leave of this place,
through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace.

[go west young man]

10. We’ve Lost Another Cetacean Species.....

Sea Shepherd News
News Releases Search all News Releases







Message from Captain Paul Watson:

I am steaming angry today. The Yangtze river dolphin called the Baiji has been officially declared extinct.

A team of 30 scientists and crew from China, and six other nations searched a 1,000-mile heavily trafficked stretch of the Yangtze, where the Baiji once thrived. After six weeks of intensive search, not a single dolphin was spotted.
http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_061214_1.html

[Rex]

11. Could they have fled to the ocean?

This is horrible news.

[Whoa_Nelly]

12. It is a freshwater species

This is terrible news :cry:

[Rex]

13. People don't hear about it on the M$M.

I have a hard time even reading the news about entire ecologies going extinct. By the region. Maybe it is a good thing it doesn't scare more people.

[Why Syzygy]

14. the cynical me wants to ask

why is there an organization for an extinct species.

The spiritual me wants to ask, what did people think was going to happen? Isn't the goal of the reptilians to extinct everyone but themselves?

Looks like they are winning. Goddess come.

[Rex]

18. Hey they just need the Sun. We have these stupid ways about us.

Reptiles can just sit back and watch us nuke each other into extinction. Hundreds of millions of years and just a few thousand for us. Enough to destroy the ecosystem. Thank you industrial revolution.

I hope we don't evolve gills as a way to survive - the oceans are being systematically destroyed right now as I type this. Killing millions of species is what humans do best. We hold dominion over the Earth. An easy responsibility to piss away.

[Why Syzygy]

24. That is not what humans do best

I am not willing to give up on our species.

Do you really believe the Dominion story? Then what. Who gave us Dominion and when does it start?
It is not an easy responsibility to piss away when you belong to the planet.
The ones who are pissing it away do not belong to the planet. And the planet does not belong to them. So how come they get to keep pissing it away? We gave up Dominion?

I'm out of the closet. These aliens are raping my planet and killing our inhabitants at will.
I'm open for suggestions. How do we stop it?

What about the Sun? I need the Sun. Has my dna been tampered?

[Rex]

28. It's the genetically modified foods, turning us into zombies.

It is the fight against nature, we've been doing it for 200 years. Dominion over the world, well except for the weather, is what humans work hard on. Day in and day out. We participate everytime we drive a car.

I'm just not sure anymore about the human race. It seems hellbent on destroying itself.

We can't stop it, hopefully the newly elected Dems will try. I know Al Gore is really pushing hard for people to understand global warming. As long as we have people like him, we have a chance IMO.

[tabasco]

15. "The Chinese had once declared it to be

the “Goddess of the Yangtze” and predicted that when the Baiji disappears the river will be dead."

[PaulaFarrell]

20. it is dead, apparently

that's the problem

[arcane1]

16. as a friend of mine just said...

"maybe we can go after those hairless apes next"

:evilfrown::evilfrown::evilfrown:

[Ian David]

17. "So long and thanks for all the fish?" n/t

[Rex]

19. LOL!

That's the first thing I thought of too! So I must ask, are we sure they just didn't call a taxi and leave the planet?

[Ian David]

21. If only that were the case. Maw and Paw BAD! BAD! n/t

[Hawkeye-X]

22. I heard about this yesterday

It's devastating news. Hopefully the DNA for the baijin has been preserved and can be "cloned" or reproduced. Its closest cousin is the finless porpoise, also of the Yangtze and fewer than 400 is left.

I checked the website here: www.baijin.org - these dolphins were indeed beautiful.

Hawkeye-X

Edit: pics of baiji for those who have not seen one before:


Note: this is why they depend on sonar exclusively

[Why Syzygy]

25. The only thing they could tell us

is who we are. So why were they targetted? They were our soul. And now?

[SlipperySlope]

23. "Another"?

The news I read talked about how this was notable because it was the FIRST such extinction. Buy you write we lost "another" cetacean. I'd like to know more...

[go west young man]

26. The Sea Shepherd article mentions that the Carribean Monk Seal

became extinct in the 1950's.

[SlipperySlope]

29. Thanks - N/T

[tom_paine]

27. Another tragedy on the way to human extinction

n/t

[leftyladyfrommo]

30. All of China's rivers are horribly polluted - people drink that stuff, too.

Because it is all they have. It's a massive problem.

All of their wildlife is going to be gone. And millions of their population will be harmed.

[brentspeak]

31. All so the people can buy badly-made junk at Mall-Wart