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“Farewell to the Yangtze River Dolphin” By Ryan McGinnis #15

“Farewell to the Yangtze River Dolphin” By Ryan McGinnis #15. Description.

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“Farewell to the Yangtze River Dolphin” By Ryan McGinnis #15

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  1. “Farewell to the Yangtze River Dolphin”ByRyan McGinnis #15

  2. Description • The Yangtze River dolphin was about human sized, weighing in at about 300-510 Pounds. It had a very long, narrow snout and small, nearly non-functioning eyes. It had a narrow back that was blue-green in color. It had a pale underside. In addition, Its dorsal (top) fin was short and was little more than a fleshy bump • On either side of the jaws were 28-32 teeth for catching river fish. The blowhole is oval shaped • i

  3. Behavioral Characteristics • They travelled in pods of 12-16 • They would dive for 10 to 20 seconds to hunt eel-like catfish in the river • they liked to live around the area around sandbar tail waters where the water was deeper • They had very poor eyesight and used advanced echolocation to hunt and find their way around • They were thought to have evolved from a species of ocean dolphin that entered the Yangtze 20 million years ago. They declined their eyesight and developed better echolocation to adapt to their muddy surroundings.

  4. Habitat and Ecosystem • The Yangtze river dolphin’s habitat was the Yangtze (Chaing Jiang) river in China. It starts in the Tibetan plateau and winds down out of the highlands and into warm, wet basins. these areas are called the Chaing Jiang basins. It is the worlds third longest river after the Amazon and The Nile at 3,915 miles long. Unfortunately for the Yangtze river dolphin, 5 major cities including Chongqing Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai are along the banks of the Yangtze. In addition an estimated 6% of the world’s population lives there.

  5. Role of the Dolphin • The Yangtze River dolphin was a predator. It hunted meaty organisms for food and did not produce its own energy. It also did not obtain its energy by breaking down dead organisms. • It was an apex predator. It was not preyed upon by other animals in the wild. • Humans were their only predator, but they hunted it murderously • human

  6. EcoSystem • The Yangtze river dolphin lived in calm, fish filled parts of the Yangtze • they lived in a stretch of the Yangtze river from the coast in 1,000 miles west. • Like I said earlier, the Yangtze River dolphin would live in protected areas in sandbar tail waters and also in deep river channels. • They drank the water in the river to get their weekly needs • They primarily ate fish of varying types, in particular, a eel like catfish that I mentioned earlier.

  7. Causes for Decline • For centuries, the Yangtze River dolphin was considered sacred as it was thought to be a reincarnation of a drowned princess • In 1958-1962, The communists began the Great Leap Forward, (which was anything but) a system of fanatical communist reforms. This denounced the Yangtze River dolphin’s sacred status and its population of 6,000 to drop quickly because of hunting for meat and skin • In 1975, the species was declared endangered but, methods of indiscriminate fishing using dynamite, electric currents, gill nets and rolling hooks continued to bring the population down. Noise from boats also confused the dolphins and they ran in to boat propellers • In 2006, the species was confirmed “ functionally extinct meaning that there may be some left but have ceased to play any role in the ecosystem

  8. Humanity at its Worst • Now that the Yangtze river dolphin is, for all practical purposes extinct, the Yangtze river will suffer because of it. There will be less animals to control, fish populations will rise too high and consume all of the food. Then they will die and wash up in vast quantities. They will rot and spread disease and make millions of people sick. • Morally, this is a defeat for humankind. Because of our stupid hunger for wealth, a species of unusual beauty has been erased from the world • It also reflects the kind of race that we as a whole are. We have hunted mammoths, tiger subspecies, sea cows and now dolphins into extinction. It shows that we care little for our planet. It shows our true nature as dumb, nearsighted incompetent monsters.

  9. The very last live Yangtze River dolphin on our planet.....Died eight years ago......

  10. How people tried to help....and failed • The chinese government has attempted to set up two or three reserves for the Yangtze River dolphin, but some fishing and boating are allowed there • They have also outlawed the use of dynamite fishing, electrofishing and rolling hooks, but the laws aren’t well enforced • While it is probably too late to save any remaining Yangtze River dolphins, scientists also try to use any information about the Yangtze River dolphin to save the Finless Porpoise, a porpoise species native to the Yangtze

  11. The opinion on “How to Help” • Personally, I believe that the Yangtze River dolphin can not be saved at this point. • However, we might be able to save the finless Porpoise population in the Yangtze by: • Cracking down harder on illegal fishing methods • having well-managed reserves for the finless porpoise • Moving some settlements off of the Yangtze • Restricting boat traffic and industry along and in the Yangtze

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