Porpoise on the brink
Source: Xinhua |
January 6, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AN endangered porpoise in the Yangtze River faces extinction within five years unless it receives proper protection, a Chinese scientist warned yesterday.
Hunting, development and pollution are causing numbers of the finless porpoise subspecies - known as the "Yangtze cowfish" despite being a mammal - to decline by 6.4 percent annually, said Wang Ding, vice director of the hydrobiology institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Wang warned that the state-protected Yangtze cowfish could be extinct by 1217 unless an active protection program is followed.
The population of the Yangtze cowfish, which lives mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the river and its neighboring lakes of Dongting and Poyang, is estimated at 1,000.
Pollution, hunting, busy waterways and the construction of hydro projects are seeing more Yangtze cowfish dying each year, said Wang.
"Many are crushed by sand dredgers," said the scientist.
Wang called for reserves for the porpoises and controls on disturbances.
Hunting, development and pollution are causing numbers of the finless porpoise subspecies - known as the "Yangtze cowfish" despite being a mammal - to decline by 6.4 percent annually, said Wang Ding, vice director of the hydrobiology institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Wang warned that the state-protected Yangtze cowfish could be extinct by 1217 unless an active protection program is followed.
The population of the Yangtze cowfish, which lives mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the river and its neighboring lakes of Dongting and Poyang, is estimated at 1,000.
Pollution, hunting, busy waterways and the construction of hydro projects are seeing more Yangtze cowfish dying each year, said Wang.
"Many are crushed by sand dredgers," said the scientist.
Wang called for reserves for the porpoises and controls on disturbances.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
