Yangtze River says no to finless porpoise extinction

The Yangtze River is a major habitant for finless porpoise, an aquatic marine mammal close to dolphins.

View of an endangered Yangtze finless porpoise in Poyang Lake, China's biggest freshwater lake, in Jiujiang city, east China's Jiangxi province, 8 May 2018. [Photo: IC]

However due to increasing human activities the number of the animal has been declining in China over the years.

Provinces along the Yangtze River have been aware of the situation and taken action to prevent the extinction of the already endangered species

CRI's Yang Guang earlier visited one of the porpoise protection zones in Anhui Province and brings us more details.

Finless porpoise are a second-class protected animal species in China and are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Their number in China is even lower than that of the Panda.

According to the latest statistics, there are barely over 1000 finless porpoises in the Yangtze River. In 1991, the number was still around 2700.

The finless porpoise is a freshwater species and has a high degree of interaction with humans. This often puts the animal at risk.

Hu Shibin, president of Anhui Yangtze River Protection Association, says there are several factors leading to the earlier reduction of the finless porpoise in China.

"First the ships on the river have become bigger in size, disturbing underwater finless porpoises. Electric fishing and illegal fishing gears, for example jig and seine are another factor. Water conservancy projects are also harmful. Finless porpoises often seek food at shallow waters, however such construction always needs riverbeds to be dug deep, indirectly reducing the animal's food. River pollution as well as sand quarrying also affect finless porpoises as the animal is very sensitive, especially the babies."

At present more than 200 finless porpoises are living near Anqing, Anhui Province.

To protect the animal, the local government has set up a few specialized protection zones as well as affiliated patrol teams to create a safe habitant for them.

Hu Shibin says the similar measures have been taken in other finless porpoise habitants nationwide and the animal's number is now steadily growing.

"Yangtze finless porpoises are currently safe from extinction because protection is now ubiquitous; especially since June 2017, four porpoise patrol teams on the Yangtze River have been set up with the guidance from central authorities and the support of Yangtze ecological protection funds. Our Anqing patrol team is the first one to be built. The three others are in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi Provinces. We assist fishery administrations to strengthen protection. We have conducted onsite conservation, observing the porpoise in their natural habitats."

Xijiang protection zone is typical among the many guarded natural habitats of finless porpoise in Anqing.

Currently there are 22 finless porpoises living in this river area which is nearly 10 kilometers long.

Zhou Jiebao is the captain of a patrol team that belongs to Xijiang protection zone.

"We patrol to prevent angling, electric fishing and seining to protect Yangtze finless porpoises in this area. Some injured porpoises are also put in here for treatment because otherwise in large water areas they would be very hard to discover and help. In the latter half of the year we also organize health examination for finless porpoises. For that period of time they will be gathered in a smaller area for the whole body screening. This year in May we also had the first baby porpoise born in our protection zone."

Zhou added that Xijiang protection zone aims to have 50 finless porpoises in five years.