A finless porpoise was found dead last Sunday morning in
Huangshi City Park in Hubei Province, the Changjiang Times
reported.
A team of ad hoc experts
did an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
An angler discovered the hapless animal and reported it to the
local police station. The animal’s body was hauled to an
alternative site for examination.
The cause of death was thrown into considerable doubt when
people came up with various speculations: commercial fishermen
using electricity may have killed the female dolphin, or she might
have been simply stranded, or maybe water pollution killed the
creature.
A team of ad hoc experts did an autopsy to determine the cause
of death.
“Such an enormous finless porpoise is rarely seen,” said Dr. Hao
Yujiang with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, brimming over with
grief. The preliminary examination revealed that the marine
creature was an adult female, measuring about 1.65 meters in length
and weighing about 70 kilograms. There were no traces of bruises
but the body stunk and the creature appeared to have been dead for
a couple of days.
Drawing on the evidence of the milk spilling out of her breasts,
Dr. He inferred that she was either pregnant or experiencing
lactation as a result of recently giving birth at the time of
death.
The autopsy confirmed his second speculation. Dr. He began to
worry that her infant would surely have a difficult time because of
a dearth of milk.
The autopsy also found that her liver and other organs had
turned black, suggesting that water pollution may be the culprit.
To fully confirm this hypothesis further examinations are currently
underway.
The woeful incident is the third one this year. On July 10,
bridge workers on Huangshi Bridge discovered an adult female
finless porpoise corpse carrying bruise wounds resulting from
struggling with a grill net. On November 15, another finless
porpoise got stranded on the river, touching off a flurry of
efforts by the local people. Sadly, three days later, the rescued
animal was found dead in the river. The postmortem examination
revealed that the animal had internal damage in the liver and
lungs, suggesting a lethal illness.
In the wake of these incidents the local fishery department has
applied to the provincial authorities to establish a reserve to
specifically protect porpoise. The local river is a natural habitat
for about 1,000 finless porpoises.
(China.org.cn by He Shan, December 11, 2007)
