Transcript Yangtze River Dolphin (Final) - Mrs-Hills

“Farewell to the Yangtze River Dolphin”
By
Ryan McGinnis #15
Description
Behavioral Characteristics
They travelled in pods of 12-16
They would dive for 10 to 20 seconds to hunt eel-like catfish in the river
they liked to live around the area around sandbar tail waters where the water
was deeper
They had very poor eyesight and used advanced echolocation to hunt and find
their way around
They were thought to have evolved from a species of ocean dolphin that
entered the Yangtze 20 million years ago. They declined their eyesight and
developed better echolocation to adapt to their muddy surroundings.
Habitat and Ecosystem
The Yangtze river dolphin’s habitat was the Yangtze (Chaing Jiang) river in
China. It starts in the Tibetan plateau and winds down out of the highlands and
into warm, wet basins. these areas are called the Chaing Jiang basins. It is the
worlds third longest river after the Amazon and The Nile at 3,915 miles long.
Unfortunately for the Yangtze river dolphin, 5 major cities including Chongqing
Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai are along the banks of the Yangtze. In addition an
estimated 6% of the world’s population lives there.
Role of the Dolphin
The Yangtze River dolphin was a predator. It hunted meaty organisms for food
and did not produce its own energy. It also did not obtain its energy by breaking
down dead organisms.
It was an apex predator. It was not preyed upon by other animals in the wild.
Humans were their only predator, but they hunted it murderously
human
EcoSystem
The Yangtze river dolphin lived in calm, fish filled parts of the Yangtze
they lived in a stretch of the Yangtze river from the coast in 1,000 miles west.
Like I said earlier, the Yangtze River dolphin would live in protected areas in
sandbar tail waters and also in deep river channels.
They drank the water in the river to get their weekly needs
They primarily ate fish of varying types, in particular, a eel like catfish that I
mentioned earlier.
Causes for Decline
For centuries, the Yangtze River dolphin was considered sacred as it was thought to
be a reincarnation of a drowned princess
In 1958-1962, The communists began the Great Leap Forward, (which was anything
but) a system of fanatical communist reforms. This denounced the Yangtze River
dolphin’s sacred status and its population of 6,000 to drop quickly because of
hunting for meat and skin
In 1975, the species was declared endangered but, methods of indiscriminate fishing
using dynamite, electric currents, gill nets and rolling hooks continued to bring the
population down. Noise from boats also confused the dolphins and they ran in to
boat propellers
In 2006, the species was confirmed “ functionally extinct meaning that there may be
some left but have ceased to play any role in the ecosystem
Humanity at its Worst
Now that the Yangtze river dolphin is, for all practical purposes extinct, the
Yangtze river will suffer because of it. There will be less animals to control, fish
populations will rise too high and consume all of the food. Then they will die and
wash up in vast quantities. They will rot and spread disease and make millions of
people sick.
Morally, this is a defeat for humankind. Because of our stupid hunger for
wealth, a species of unusual beauty has been erased from the world
It also reflects the kind of race that we as a whole are. We have hunted
mammoths, tiger subspecies, sea cows and now dolphins into extinction. It
shows that we care little for our planet. It shows our true nature as dumb,
nearsighted incompetent monsters.
The very last live Yangtze River dolphin on our
planet.....Died eight years ago......
How people tried to help
....and failed
The chinese government has attempted to set up two or three reserves for the
Yangtze River dolphin, but some fishing and boating are allowed there
They have also outlawed the use of dynamite fishing, electrofishing and rolling
hooks, but the laws aren’t well enforced
While it is probably too late to save any remaining Yangtze River dolphins,
scientists also try to use any information about the Yangtze River dolphin to save
the Finless Porpoise, a porpoise species native to the Yangtze
The opinion on “How to Help”
Personally, I believe that the Yangtze River dolphin can not be saved at this
point.
However, we might be able to save the finless Porpoise population in the Yangtze
by:
Cracking down harder on illegal fishing methods
having well-managed reserves for the finless porpoise
Moving some settlements off of the Yangtze
Restricting boat traffic and industry along and in the Yangtze