Yangtze River Dolphin extinct

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Midnight Star:
I couldn't believe how many sharks are caught and killed each year (totaling in the millions!) ... that number is simply incredible to me - I have no idea how they've held on for so long with those numbers. I'd much rather be someone who says to my grandchildren, dad didn't put that one on his wall so you guys could see it alive and in the water. Isn't it gorgeous there - look at it's majesty and colors. See how it swims across the reef? I simply can't show them that with a head mounted on a wall.

:)

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Mike.

The sharks are fined alive and their bodies thrown back in the Ocean to die. Their fins are used to make soup.
 
Very sad story but there is hope.

In 1849 the river thames in London was so poluted no fish lived in the tidal river. We will never know whether we had a river dolphin that went extinct, or what fish were unique to these tidal waters.
By 1890 the river had been cleaned up and fish were seen again in the river.
The increasing population, damage from the ww2 ment that by the 1950's the river was again dead, large stretches were devoid of any oxygen, no fish survived, anything that needed O2 to live died.
Following reports in the eqrly 1960's work was done to improve sewage treatment and to stop industrial wast entering the river, gradualy the water quality improved.
In 1974 the first Salmon in 150 years returned to the river.
In the last 25 years some 120 species of fish have been recorded in the river.

Given the political will a river can recover very quickly.
We may never get back the river dolphin, or we may be lucky and find small population somewhere.
However the longer it is before they start the process the less chance there is for the dolphin and the more specious that will be at risk.
 
My mistake, I had assumed that it was pollution that was killing the river, apparently not, it is river traffic.
Now I don't no what can be done about that.
 
victor:
My mistake, I had assumed that it was pollution that was killing the river, apparently not, it is river traffic.
Now I don't no what can be done about that.
Why do you think it's river traffic? It's most certainly pollution according to the quoted article.
 
Mr.X:
I posted something about the impending confrontation that is going to occur in the Antarctic between Japanese whalers, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherds. It was removed. As I said on the deleted thread - let people know that the magnificent creatures of the earth are disappearing right under our noses. This also includes people - think Darfur, think Sudan.

X
Your thread was pulled becouse you tried to play politics that you don't understand or choose not to, yet you try here again. There are good causes to be part of but they need tobe looked at very carefully before lending support such as the Darfur nonsense. It's a left wing anti GWB campagin and nothing more. This like Iraq is a UN event and not a US alone event but people don't want to see that.
Just like jumping on every save the _________ cause that comes along. They may sound good on the surface but often fall apart under closer examination such as the annual anti shark thread here from the east coast shark shoot out.
Sharks are not being decimated by sport fisherman putting heads on the wall nor by US commercial fishing intrests. It's the asian high seas drift netters that do so much damage. Yes, the shark are finned then dumped and some are still alive when this happens but most are not and the ones still alive are quickly dying for the most part so "releasing them" would do little good, most will die anyway. The solution is more discriminate fishing methods and cultureal awarness. These things don't happen over night.

This is very sad aboout the dolphins. I see someone here thinks they live in the ocean despite being named river dolphins. This is the uninformed emotional outpouring Im talking about.
I hope there are a few somewhere that DNA can be saved from and I hope, aint gonna happen but I can hope that China and the rest of the world will start becoming more environmentaly aware as a result of this tragic event.
 
Mr.X:
I posted something about the impending confrontation that is going to occur in the Antarctic between Japanese whalers, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherds. It was removed. X




Why was it removed?
 
This is particularly depressing depressing in that by many definitions, dolphins are considered sapient.
 
evad:
Why was it removed?
If you would have read the thread you would have seen. It's one post back. He tried to take a mushy heart thing like whaling and put an anti GWB spin on it by playing on the Duafar BS and I called him on it.
 

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