'Goddess of the Yangtze' Driven to Extinction

The Yangtze dolphin has earned the sad distinction of becoming the first cetacean ever driven by humans to extinction.

Believed to have emerged 25 million years ago, the precise date of the dolphin's origin isn't known. The date of its demise is.

With little need to see in the shallow, turbid Yangtze waters, the dolphin - for centuries called the Goddess of the Yangtze and the subject of myth and legend - evolved a highly effective sonar above its beak.

But the roar of marine traffic along one of China's premier waterways effectively blinded it. Ships and tourist boats sucked them into their propellers, pollution poisoned their river home and, most of all, they suffered because of overfishing.

In 2000, a survey found just 17 dolphins remaining.
Scientists hoped to capture them and take them to a lake preserve where the population could be reborn.

Sadly, a fruitless six-week survey showed that the scientists were too late.

Now facing a similar predicament is the Yangtze finless porpoise. The survey showed that fewer than 400 of the porpoise remain. Hopefully we won't be too late for them.

Yangtzse River dolphin 'now extinct' [Telegraph]

Image: Wang Ding*