Evolution Diary

A sad end after 20 millions of years of evolution… all caused by Man.

Wuhan, 13 December 2006 – The Baiji Yangtze Dolphin is with all probability extinct. On Wednesday, in the city of Wuhan in central China, a search expedition, under the direction of the Institute for Hydrobiology Wuhan and the Swiss-based baiji.org Foundation, drew to a finish without any results. During the six-week expedition scientists from six nations desperately searched the Yangtze in vain.

The scientists were travelling on two research vessels almost 3500 kilometers from Yichang nearby the Three Gorges Dam to Shanghai into the Yangtze Delta and back, using high-performance optical instruments and underwater microphones.

«It is possible we may have missed one or two animals», said August Pfluger, head of Swiss-based baiji.org Foundation and co-organizer of the expedition on Wednesday in Wuhan. Regardless, these animals would have no chance of survival in the river. «We have to accept the fact, that the Baiji is functionally extinct.. It is a tragedy, a loss not only for China, but for the entire world», said Pfluger in Wuhan.

The grey-white, long-beaked animal looks likely to become the world’s first cetacean — the family of whales, dolphins and porpoises — to be made extinct by man.

The lonely dolphin … Qi Qi, who was found injured in the Yangtze in 1980 and lived in a Wuhan aquarium until she died in 2002. An expedition is searching for others of her kind but not one has been sighted. Photograph: AFP

The fate of the delicate dolphin is attributed to the destruction of their habitat, illegal fishing and collisions with ships. Regarded in China as the “goddess of the Yangtze”, the 20 million year old river dolphin was one of the world’s oldest species.

Also surveyed in the expedition is the endangered Yangtze Finless Porpoise

Yangtze Finless Porpoise

More information about the Baiji Expedition here

Slideshow of the Baiji Expedition here