River dolphin is wiped out

[muriel_volestrangler]

A species of dolphin has been driven to extinction by human activity for the first time, scientists confirmed yesterday.

A six-week survey of the entire habitat range of the Yangtze river dolphin, or baiji, which is found only in the great Chinese river system, found no evidence for its survival. The dolphin is the first large vertebrate to become extinct for more than 50 years. It is also the only species of cetacean � the order of mammals that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises � to have died out because of human influence.

Its disappearance has been blamed on fishing nets that inadvertently trap and drown the dolphins, and on degradation of its habitat.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2218021.ece

[MasonJar]

1. Man is a plague on the planet Earth. That is so terribly awful that I am

speechless for once in my life. Shame on the Chinese! Shame on the Bush government that ignores the plight of innocent creatures. A pox on both your houses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GliderGuider]

2. RIP, fellow creature.

What have we done?
:cry:

[Dead_Parrot]

4. What we do best.

[corkhead]

20. It is one of those sacrifices we all must make to keep Walmart's prices low

just in case, you never know lately...

:sarcasm:

[redqueen]

3. I hate to even think it, but I seem to have become numb.

My first thought was "wonder which species will be next?"

*sigh*

[Trillo]

5. Its disappearance was finalized after the reported massive benzene

spill into the Yangtze.

Perhaps this is a little 'memory' adjustment for the older proles and a memory seeding for the youngin's.

[girl gone mad]

8. It was functionally extinct long before..

primarily due to sonar pollution and overfishing.

The Yangtze river is one giant ecological disaster.

[phantom power]

6. I wonder if any of the evening news bobbleheads will pause to devote any time to this.

I realize their plate is full, what with having to cover the antics of so many celebrity girls gone wild.

But it might be worth a moment of silence.

[phantom power]

7. Busy monster eats dark holes in the spirit world

where wild things have to go, to disappear forever
--Bruce Cockburn

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Front page of The Independent: Extinct

Today, the scientific report of that expedition, published in the peer-reviewed journal of the Royal Society, Biology Letters, confirms the dolphin known as the baiji or white-fin in Chinese and celebrated for its pale skin and distinctive long snout, has disappeared.

To blame for its demise is the increasing number of container ships that use the Yangtze, as well as the fishermen whose nets became an inadvertent hazard.

This is no ordinary extinction of the kind that occurs frequently in a world of millions of still-evolving species. The Yangtze freshwater dolphin was a remarkable creature that separated from all other species so many millions of years ago, and had become so distinct, that it qualified as a mammal family in its own right. It is the first large vertebrate to have become extinct for 50 years and only the fourth entire mammal family to disappear since the time of Columbus, when Europeans began their colonisation of the world.

The three previous mammal families gone from the face of the Earth are the giant lemurs of Madagascar, which were eliminated in the 17th century, the island shrews of the West Indies, probably wiped out by the rats that accompanied Colombus on his voyage, and the Tasmanian tiger, the last known specimen of which died in captivity in 1936. (The most famous creature to have become extinct in the past 500 years, the Dodo, was a bird.)

http://environment.independent.co.uk/wildlife/article2843953.ece

[hunter]

10. And the little guys in the Gulf of California are in bad shape...

Wiping out the ecology of the Colorado River certainly didn't help.

How Now, Little Cow?

The vaquita, the world's smallest porpoise, lives only in the northern Gulf of California. It often drowns in fishing nets as bycatch, and just 200 individuals remain. Can the species survive?

By Robert L. Pitman and Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho


“Vaquita!”

Two on-duty and three dozing off-duty observers spring to attention on the flying bridge of our research vessel under the suffocating heat of the Mexican sun. The shouting observer checks the readings on her binoculars, but she can barely check her excitement: “Twenty-two degrees left of the bow, about 1,200 meters away. Looks like a mother and calf swimming together!”

Momentary mayhem breaks out on the flying bridge as members of the survey team tussle for binoculars and jockey for position. Everyone wants to see the world’s most endangered marine mammal.

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/index_feature2.html

Natural History Magazine, July-August 2007

It may be too late for some, but it's too close for others. I'm always surprised and saddened how unknown the vaquita are...

[ladjf]

11. The human race has created a "death machine" they they will

be able to shutdown. And when humans themselves are annihilated by their terrible machine, they will have achieved the all time record for short time presence on Earth. The verdict: too much arrogance and greed. Not enough intelligence.

[file83]

12. Congratulations China!! And now for the Summer Olympics....

Your reward.

[arenean]

13. From the BBC....

BBC: Rare river dolphin 'now extinct'

BBC: Rare river dolphin 'now extinct'

and video on their home page.....

BBC News Front Page

[YankeyMCC]

14. Here's a quote from the BBC piece on this story

""Unlike most historical-era extinctions of large bodied animals, the baiji was the victim not of active persecution but incidental mortality resulting from massive-scale human environmental impacts - primarily uncontrolled and unselective fishing," the researchers concluded."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6935343.stm

That really says it all IMO.

[Delphinus]

15. I see a new phrase

for collateral damage - incidental mortality (both, to me, imply that their lives are inconsequential - they couldn't be more wrong). :cry:

[hatrack]

16. AKA "Oops! We didn't know! (Insert Kevin Spacey-type voice from Seven)

Or, more accurately:

"Oops! We didn't know! Well, actually, we did know, but it might have cost somebody money, or inconvenienced somebody, and God knows you can't stop economic growth, and besides, the American Way Of Life (coming soon to a society near you!) is non-negotiable, so fuck it."

[Mark Twain Girl]

17. So long and thanks for all the fish...

:(

Someone above said they were numb, just waiting to see what species would be next. It's like watching something terrible unfold, and no matter how much we try, we can't stop it.

[phantom power]

18. In this case, it's "thanks for all the fish *nets*."

:(

My soul feels filthy.

[phantom power]

19. I wonder if they had any language amongst themselves, for who was killing them.

Did they talk about it? Did they perceive it to be the actions of another kind of creature, or did they see it as just an unfortunate change in their environment, one they couldn't cope with?

I wonder if they talked about how their species had always adapted before, and how surely they would find a solution this time too.

[roguevalley]

21. unbelievably, unspeakably horrible. I could just cry forever.

[HamdenRice]

22. I'm surprised that there aren't even any individuals in zoos/aquariums nt