A proposal by a Chinese scientist has been submitted to the
State Council to launch a finless porpoise tourism project on the
Yangtze River which would be like international whale watch
programs.
Wang Kexiong, an expert with the Hydrobiology Institute under
the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a participant in the fruitless
search for white-flag dolphins along the river at the end of last
year, believes the program would help protect the species.
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"The program would involve regulating shipping, curbing over
fishing and pollution which would help revitalize the habitat of
the river's finless porpoises," he told China Youth
Daily.
He said the US State California launched a tourist whale watch
program as early as 1955. Similar programs had been introduced in
nearly one hundred countries.
The Chinese program, similar to the California venture, would
earn good tourism revenues and cause almost no pollution, he
said.
The large number of vessels on the river have been found to
interfere with the directional sonar used by dolphins and finless
porpoises to find food. Fishing nets and pollution are other major
contributing factors to the decline of the species.
International scientists failed to find a single white-flag
dolphin during an expedition from November to December last year.
The majority of experts agree the species is "functionally
extinct."
Experts predict there are only 1,200 to 1,400 finless porpoise
currently inhabiting the Yangtze, Poyang Lake and Dongting
Lake.
(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2007)
