Searching for baiji dolphins in the Yangtze River: Will this be the first cetacean species to go extinct in our lifetime?
By Randall Wells, PhD

Shishou Semi-natural Reserve for baiji and finless porpoises (surfacing above), a protected, 21-km long oxbow of the Yangtze River.

The Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji, is found only in the Yangtze River and its tributaries in China. It is likely the most endangered species of cetacean in the world, with only dozens of individuals estimated to remain along the 1,600 km stretch of the Yangtze River, the area considered to be its current habitat. This habitat, which serves nearly 15% of the people on the face of the earth, continues to decline in its suitability for sustaining baiji, and the finless porpoises that share the river. This deteriorating situation has brought Chinese conservationists and a number of cetacean specialists from around the world to the point of deciding that the few remaining baiji should be removed from the river and placed into a breeding colony in a protected, pinched-off oxbow of the river, the Shishou Semi-natural Reserve (see photo below). This decision and initial plans have come about during a number of meetings including several in which we have participated in Wuhan, China, Washington, DC, and San Diego over the past few years. The Sarasota Dolphin Research Program has been called upon to provide input on safe and effective dolphin capture techniques. During June 2006, Mr. Wei Zhou of the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan participated in our health assessment program in Sarasota Bay to learn more about our capture-release and handling techniques.

Are these plans too little, too late? As of this writing (late November 2006), a survey of the Yangtze River was being conducted to search for baiji and to identify potential capture sites. With more than half of the survey already completed, no baiji have been found, and numbers of finless porpoises were lower than expected.