The Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Expedition 2006 () was a six-week search expedition undertaken in November and December 2006 in central China in an attempt to locate continued proof of the existence of the endangered baiji Yangtze dolphin (Chinese river dolphin). It was carried out under the direction of the Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology and the Swiss-base
baiji.org
Foundation and was notable for drawing to an end without any positive results. Thus it was announced that the species was

functionally extinct Functional extinction is the extinction of a species or other taxon such that: #It disappears from the fossil record, or historic reports of its existence cease; #The reduced population no longer plays a significant role in ecosystem function; or ...

. The scientists travelled on two research vessels almost 3500 kilometres from

Yichang Yichang (), alternatively romanized as Ichang, is a prefecture-level city located in western Hubei province, China. It is the third largest city in the province after the capital, Wuhan and the prefecture-level city Xiangyang, by urban populati ...

to the nearby

Three Gorges Dam The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, central China, downstream of the Three Gorges. The Three Gorges Dam has been the world' ...

, onto

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

and into the

Yangtze Delta The Yangtze Delta or Yangtze River Delta (YRD, or simply ) is a triangle-shaped megalopolis generally comprising the Wu Chinese-speaking areas of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. The area lies in the heart of the Jiangnan reg ...

before retracing their path backwards. They used high-performance optical instruments and underwater microphones in an attempt to locate one of the dolphins. The head of the baiji.org Foundation and co-organizer of the expedition, August Pfluger was reported to have said "It is possible we may have missed one or two animals". However even if a small number were still alive, it is extremely unlikely they would be able to survive in the long-term. "It is a tragedy, a loss not only for China, but for the entire world" Pfluger said from his base in Wuhan. Others retain some hope for the species. Wang Limin, director of the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

Wuhan office said, "The fact that the expedition didn't see any baiji dolphins during this expedition does not necessarily mean that the species is extinct or even 'effectively extinct', because it covered a considerable distance in a relatively short period of time... However, we are extremely concerned. The Yangtze is highly degraded, and we spotted dramatically fewer finless porpoises than we have in the past." The expedition was led by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and brought together experts from international institutes like the

Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology The Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag, German acronym for ''Eidgenössische Anstalt für Wasserversorgung, Abwasserreinigung und Gewässerschutz'') is a Swiss water research institute and an internationally network ...

(Eawag), the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

(NOAA), the Hubbs-Seaworld Institute from

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

and the Fisheries Research Agency in Japan. A report of the expedition was published online in the journal

Biology Letters ''Biology Letters'' is a peer-reviewed, biological, scientific journal published by the Royal Society. It focuses on the rapid publication of short high quality research articles, reviews and opinion pieces across the biological sciences. ''Biolog ...

on August 7, 2007, in which the authors wrote: ''"We are forced to conclude that the baiji is now likely to be extinct, probably due to unsustainable by-catch in local fisheries..."'

"Witness to Extinction: How We Failed To Save The Yangtze River Dolphin", an account of the 2006 survey by Samuel Turvey, one of the survey participants, was published by Oxford University Press in autumn 2008. This book investigated the baiji's probable extinction within the wider-scale context of how and why international efforts to conserve the species had failed, and whether conservation recovery programmes for other threatened species were likely to face similar potentially disastrous administrative hurdles.{{Cite journal, last=Smith, first=Brian, date=22 October 2009, title=Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin by S. Turvey, url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2009.00331.x, journal=Marine Mammal Science, volume=25, issue=4 , pages=987–991, doi=10.1111/j.1748-7692.2009.00331.x , via=Wiley Online Library

References

External links

The baiji Foundation
"Hope dies last"

Asian expeditions 2006 in science Yangtze River 2006 in the environment 2006 in China November 2006 events in China December 2006 events in China