Yangtze river dolphin driven to extinction

[kskiska]

Source: The Guardian

· Intensive survey reveals disappearance of species
· Scientists blame shipping, hunting and fishing

The Yangtze river dolphin, until recently one of the most endangered species on the planet, has been declared officially extinct following an intensive survey of its natural habitat.

The freshwater marine mammal, which could grow to eight feet long and weigh up to a quarter of a tonne, is the first large vertebrate forced to extinction by human activity in 50 years, and only the fourth time an entire evolutionary line of mammals has vanished from the face of the Earth since the year 1500.

Conservationists described the extinction as a "shocking tragedy" yesterday, caused not by active persecution but accidentally and carelessly through a combination of factors including unsustainable fishing and mass shipping.

(snip)

In the 1950s, the Yangtze river and neighbouring watercourses had a population of thousands of freshwater dolphins, also known as Baiji, but their numbers have declined dramatically since China industrialised and transformed the Yangtze into a crowded artery of mass shipping, fishing and power generation. A survey in 1999 estimated the population of river dolphins was close to just 13 animals.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/08/endangeredspecies.conservation

[amitten]

1. I can't stand this.

:cry:

[EV_Ares]

13. Myself included. It is hard for me to have any respect for mankind

with what we are doing to animals, the environment and each other.

[proud patriot]

2. Tragic

:(

[UndauntedD]

3. Douglas Adams

These guys were in Douglas Adams' "Last Chance To See"

... He was right. :-(

[AmyDeLune]

10. That was terribly sad...

those poor creatures were doomed even then. I remember when they lowered the microphone into the water and heard a cacophony of white noise and wondered how the virtually blind dolphin could possibly survive in that environment...:cry:

[Webster Green]

4. China sucks!

What a fucking shithole!

[hunter]

28. Excuse me, Humans suck.

USAmericans are pretty high on that list of nationally specified environmental suck, probably in heated competition and cooperation with the Chinese in overall shit holiness.

[Gloria]

5. R.I.P. Unbelievably tragic, needless....

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

6. They (dolphins) were here long before mankind...

...and will be here long after -- they're going to miss us too -- NOT!!!

[Canuckistanian]

7. R.I.P., You beautiful creature

http://imgred.com/

We're so sorry.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kool Kitty]

9. This is sad.

And if we're not a bit more careful, that's going to be us.

[Tyler Durden]

11. Is THAT such a bad thing?

We haven't exactly shown ourselves to be the moral epitome of creation our myths claim we are.

[BestCenter]

30. Don't be too hasty

If we went extinct, who's going to genetically resurrect species that we killed?

[Kool Kitty]

31. No, and that's not what I meant.

It would be probably the best thing for the earth and the other surviving creatures. I just meant that all of us beings are connected, and when one goes, others are sure to follow. And then it will be our turn. I don't think some people care about the other creatures that we share the planet with.

[GliderGuider]

33. That's the key insight.

"All of us beings are connected, and when one goes, others are sure to follow"

Humanity is a part of life, not apart from it. Our self-awareness gives us the illusion that our species is fundamentally different from all the others that have inhabited the planet, and is therefore immune to the natural forces that have acted on all those others. It just ain't so.

Look into Deep Ecology, a philosophy developed by Arne Naess in 1972 as a response to anthropocentric environmentalism.

Some of its principles:

* The richness and diversity of all life on Earth has intrinsic value, independent of the usefulness of the non-human world for human purposes.
* Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital human needs.
* Human life can flourish even with a substantial decrease of the human population. The flourishing of non-human life requires such a decrease.
* Human interference with the non-human world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening.
* Policies must therefore be changed. These policies affect basic economic, technological, and ideological structures. The resulting state of affairs will be profoundly different from the present.

I've found a philosophical and even spiritual home in Deep Ecology. It's the only system of thought that directly and fully addresses the reason why our behaviour towards the rest of the life on the planet is so profoundly immoral. It also recognizes that in damaging other life we damage ourselves on many different levels.

[BestCenter]

37. But isn't it still humanocentric

How does one set "morality" in Deep Ecology?

Other species still wipe each other out. That's what Survival of the Fittest is all about. In nature, ecosystems change, species either change or are destroyed by other species. If humans were gone, another species will certainly take our place. If the dolphins had reached civilization and technology prior to us, and became an expansionist, Earth-exploiting species, would that make them any more "immoral"?

[GliderGuider]

39. Yes, it is.

The capacity for self-awareness, the ability to reason abstractly and to direct our actions on the basis of such reasoning gives us the ability to understand the impact our actions have on other beings. That comprehension confers on us the responsibility to refrain from action if we recognize that it will be harmful. I define acting despite the recognition of a harmful outcome as immoral. I think that definition of morality would be appropriate for any self-aware, empathic species.

It's the awareness of harm that gives birth to morality, and it's why the actions of most animals can't be judged in those terms.

[BestCenter]

40. Fair enough.

I agree that human wastefulness and greed must be curbed, especially because humans ought to "know better." However, I still think that there's something about Deep Ecology that seems to overlook that species naturally kill each other off over time, and that all species are ephemeral, and the ecosystems of the earth are inevitably going to change. So even if the current capacity for human beings to affect the world is reduced to preindustrial times, there's still some element of futility, isn't there? Because if human beings don't change the Earth, the Earth is going to change anyways.

[GliderGuider]

41. That way lies fatalism, though.

In fact humans have probably been re-engineering the planet since the development of agriculture 10,000 years ago. We have the intrinsic capacity to alter the environment on a global scale, which other animals don't. We have taken over from Mother Nature as the dominant force for ecological change on the planet. Assuming a fatalistic posture would only magnify the immorality of such actions, wouldn't it?

[YankeyMCC]

12. 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

[ohio2007]

14. Boycott Chinese seafood ?

they are a developing country and this won't be the last extinction imo.

[4dsc]

32. Boycott all Chinese goods

I find it disgusting that these dirty Chinese bastards have gotton such a foot hold into our society!! I don't buy Chinese shit any more!!

[Dogmudgeon]

35. Time to change the old avatar

:evilfrown:

--p!

[hunter]

36. We should boycott U.S. goods too, while we are at it.

And tear down those nasty dams along the Colorado River, and ban pesticides, and fishing...

Dirty U.S. bastards. They can all go to hell.

:sarcasm:

[DUlover2909]

15. Does anyone store the DNA or cells or something from

endangered plants and animals?

[sofa king]

17. Yes, but....

A cursory search shows that there is enough Yangtze dolphin DNA around to compare it with other, similar species, such as the Irawaddy dolphin and the Australian snub-nose. So there is DNA around and probably enough to resurrect it through a similar host creature.

There are a number of DNA "banks," for example the Brazilian plant DNA bank. The scientific community has certainly recognized the need for a unified endangered species repository.

However, in the case of this poor critter saving the DNA doesn't do anything to save its habitat or change the net-fishing practices which exterminated it in the first place, and with another billion buns in the Chinese oven things aren't going to change anytime soon. In fact, I think the demise of one of my favorite fish species, the Chinese Paddlefish, won't be far behind the white dolphin.

[Hugin]

18. Good points...

To which I will add, although a DNA bank for endangered species is a good idea, I worry that it
might be a conscience mollifier.

Possible scenario... "Hey, Chet... Is that the last Great Horned Owl you're eating?
"Sure. Want some?" "No way man! I will not participate in the extinction of a species."
"Hey, chill out, man. I froze some DNA!" "Oh, in that case hand me a leg."

It totally overlooks the cost and effort it would require to recreate a species and it's
habitat and makes everyone feel better.

[BestCenter]

38. True, but it still gives us hope

The Earth will outlast any changes we make. Perhaps one day we can restore the habitats of the baji, and recreate it therein.

[Falconlights]

16. Score ANOTHER One For the Human Race

This is absolutely disgusting! I noted a post that dolphins (and hopefully other cetaceans) will be here long after we are gone...I say amen to that! It seems as if humans have to mess up things everywhere they go. This is but the latest in a long line of human-caused extinctions stretching back to the Pleistocene Era, if not earlier.

Everything has its place in the environment...trust that this extinction WILL have some sort of environmental impact.

[The Stranger]

19. I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.

[The Stranger]

25. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.

[The Stranger]

27. The Lorax said nothing. Just gave me a glance . . .

just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance . . .
as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants.
And I´ll never forget the grim look on his face
when he heisted himself and took leave of this place,
through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace.

[merh]

20. If the tales of Christ are true

then I hope he continues to pray on our behalf "Father forgive them, they know not what they do."


:cry:

[hunter]

21. There's a similar creature in the Gulf of California.

Fishing and the complete and utter destruction of the natural Colorado River environment haven't been kind to the vaquita...



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=107573&mesg_id=107591

[Ladyhawk]

22. I knew about this awhile back, after the survey.

The Yangtze River Dolphin was declared virtually extinct.

And for the few I saw pointing the finger at China, I have a few reminders for you:

-Carolina Parakeet
-Passenger Pigeon
-Thick-billed parrot
-Ivory-billed woodpecker
-Gray wolf populations in the lower 48
-Grizzly bear populations in the lower 48
-The extirpation of the Atlantic gray whale
-The near annihilation of Pacific populations of the sea otter, Northern fur seals, Northern elephant seals, blue whales, gray whales, humpback whales, etc.

We managed to save most of the marine mammals for now. But we annihilated one of two native species of parrots and drove the other to Mexico. One of the most numerous bird species ever, the passenger pigeon, is gone.

[hunter]

23. We'll own a very large share of climate change extinctions too.

Since we couldn't control our greenhouse gas emissions.

Even a portion of the Chinese share of destruction is ours, since so much of the crap industrial development in China is fueled by U.S. Consumerism.

[Vilis Veritas]

24. A few facts...

Extinctions are happening all over the world. Every day. This one made the news. Most do not. Most Extinctions go unnoticed simply due to the fact that the species was never cataloged in the first place. The pace is quickening and it may be too late to stop it.

This excerpt is from the Sacramento Zoo.

Disturbing predictions
Scientific estimates based on several types of data suggest that the pace of extinction may quicken in the future. Data on bird populations, for example, indicate that about 1,100 bird species are likely to become extinct in the next few decades--10 times more than the number that died out in the last century, and 10 percent of all birds. If 10 percent of all species were to die off in the next century, we would lose at least 10,000 species per year, or 30 species per day.

Even that estimate is likely to be too low, however, because extinctions inevitably grow more rapid as the loss of one species directly brings about the demise of others. A bird that feeds on the nectar of a specific plant, for example, may carry pollen from flower to flower, thus helping that plant reproduce. If the bird species dies off, the plant is likely to perish soon after. Considering factors such as these, ecologists estimate that, if current conditions persist, we will lose many more than 10,000 species per year.

Estimating the number of extinctions as a function of habitat loss
A different method of predicting the number of species likely to die off in the future is based on studies of the outcome of habitat destruction. This rule of thumb, called the species-area relationship, indicates how many species are likely to survive in an area of a certain size. Through decades of research, naturalists have found that if a wilderness area is cut in half, about 15 percent of species in the original area will die out. If the remaining area is halved again, another 15 percent of the species will be lost.

By using the species-area relationship along with calculations based on other types of data, scientists have arrived at some startling predictions for the future pace of extinctions. Many ecologists predict that unless human activities change dramatically, we are likely to lose one-half of the world's species during the next 100 years. Such estimates may appear extreme, but scientists point out that archaeological records show that rapid species extinction followed the spread of human beings across the globe. And we already know of thousands of plant and animal species for which only specimens in museums remain.

Small numbers of settlers unintentionally exterminated many of the Pacific Island birds. Today's massive--and rapidly growing--human population is capable of much greater damage. The greatest loss of species, ecologists fear, is yet to come.

This dolphin was unique. I saw a life sized statue of one in Chong Qing last year at the Historical Museum. It was the thought of all people I met that the Dolphin was already gone since scientist had not made any observations in a couple of years. The people of China are not the problem. The corporate oligarchy that rules the PLANET is the problem. It is not just here in the United States that we have to be concerned about the Rise of the Corporo-Fascist Regime...it is a world-wide problem. That is The New World Order.

Peace.

[hunter]

26. For now the earth eaters rule the planet.

But it is not a sustainable structure.

Natural forces come into play against all plague species. In 10,000 years the environment will be diversifying with or without humans. (The way we are progressing, probably without...)

I don't have that kind of patience, however. I want a better world for me and my children. My biological descendents or lack of descendents 10,000 years from now seems very distant even though it is an insignificant passage of geological time.

[gulfcoastliberal]

29. A tragedy. Expect many many more to come. nt

[Marrah_G]

34. This is so sad

It amazes me how we can allow this to happen in this day and age. Now it's to late to fix. It just makes me want to cry.