Freshwater dolphin possibly extinct

From the Toronto Star:

Intensive search of Yangtze River in China fails to find single member of species

Aug 08, 2007 04:30 AM

Michael Kahn
REUTERS NEWS AGENCY

LONDON–The long-threatened Yangtze River dolphin in China is probably extinct, according to an international team of researchers who said this would mark the first whale or dolphin to be wiped out due to human activity.

The freshwater dolphin, or baiji, was last spotted several years ago and an intensive six-week search late last year failed to find any evidence that one of the rarest species on Earth survives, said Samuel Turvey, a conservation biologist at the Zoological Society of London, who took part in the search.

He said the dolphin's demise, which resulted from overfishing, pollution and lack of intervention, might serve as a cautionary tale and should spur governments and scientists to act to save other species verging on extinction.

"Ours is the first scientific study which didn't find any," he said in a telephone interview. "Even if there are a few left we can't find them and we can't do anything to stop their extinction."

The team, which published its findings in the Journal of the Royal Society Biology Letters today, included researchers from the United States, Britain, Japan and China. The survey was also authorized by the Chinese government, Turvey said.

The last confirmed baiji sighting was 2002, although there have been a handful of unconfirmed sightings since then. The last baiji in captivity died in 2002, Turvey said.

The dolphins will now be classified as critically endangered and possibly extinct.