Rescuing China’s endless power from the edge of disappearance

Chinese scientists are in the battle to save one of the last major animal species living in the Yangtze River – and a complete ban on fishing in the region helps them.

At the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan, just 5 km (3.1 miles) from the shores of the river, the preserved bodies of the already disappeared Dolphin River (Baji in Chinese) and the paddles sits silently behind the glass windows.

“Now that these have disappeared, we will save the Yangtze River Porpoise,” Professor Wang Sis told the BBC. “It has become the most important animal here.”

It was in 2002 that the last known Baji died, 22 years after researchers at the institute began to take care of it. A year later, the last known fish on paddles – a species of fish that can grow to more than 3 meters – was accidentally caught by fishermen and, although marked and released radio, disappeared, disappeared.

The goal now is to stop Yangzze Finless River Porpoise – 1200 of which remain in nature, according to current assessments – from the suffering of the same fate.

“This is the only top-level predator left in the river,” explains Professor Wang. “They are rare and their number reflects the health of the environment of the whole system.”

The idea of ​​stopping all fishing was first conceived by Professor Kao Vencuan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2006, but it took much greater pressure from his colleagues before a full 10-year BAS almost five years ago.

Forced by police, the ban brings a potential prison time for fishing caught just along Yangtze, as well as for neighboring lakes and tributaries. He was extremely destructive and released 220,000 fishermen.

Still, the endless Porpoise, which belongs to the most living branch of Porpoise’s family tree, remains critically threatened today.

Those who are shown at the Institute are captured in captivity to be explored by CAS. They can be seen on top of the water or bottom after removing the stairs to a deep tank where the observation area is located.

Scientists say they are excited about the company of people and it certainly seems to be shown: water racing and swimming at speed near a glass of people on the other side. Swimming the past, they seem to be looking at you with a naughty smile.

In nature, they still hang where other species could not.

The construction of the main part of the Three Courges Dam in 2006 did not directly affect the endless Porpoise, which should not go upstream to throw, although it affects the fish they eat.

For other large marine animals, such as the fish on paddles or the Chinese sturgeon, the structure was catastrophic.

Wang Ding, a member of the International Union for Nature Protection (IUCN), who specializes in cetaceans as the endless Porpoise, has dedicated his life to maintaining Yangtz’s health. He can see the good and the bad with these dams – and recalls how things were.

“Every season of flooding we should organize a team with strong muscles, using many men, to fall asleep on the shore of the river, only if a flood comes,” he says. “Then, if the flood struck, everyone would do everything possible to try to keep the banks on a fee to make sure they were not broken by dangerous fast water.”

Now, he says, the three gorges are mitigated against the flood.

However, as Professor Wang points out, this massive, blocking structure also does not allow Yangtze’s giant sturgeon to reach their spawning seats.

Although the endangered fish seemed to have found an alternative place, he says this is no longer the case – and nowadays, the Esteria is only in the river because the researchers are pouring them, 10,000 at a time.

Although more than a million captive was released in Yangtze last year, attempts to increase the population were unsuccessful as fish did not reproduce in nature.

So the endless Porpoise does not end like this, Professor Wang and other scientists hope that the present complete ban on fishing will continue after the original 10 years have increased.

Their research, published in the Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recorded a drastic increase in the number of fish, as the ban came into force in 2021.

However, another threat to the endless Porpoise may be more difficult to resolve.

Wang said that “ships are very dangerous to the brain of animals because they are very noisy.”

It is claimed that this produces a form of pollution of underwater noise, which pushes the animals.

Chinese scientists believe that the sound of ships may have contributed to the death of the Dolphins of the Bajji River of Yangtze, who used sonar for communication.

But it is one thing to ban fishing – it would be quite another to stop the busy river traffic that supplies passengers, as well as goods, and provides a life force for much of the economy of central China.

It was more about the forcing of the chemicals that produce chemicals to move away from Yangtze. Thousands of them have been closed or moved over the last decade, underway, which is said to significantly improve the quality of river water.

There is also the participation of the community in the pressure of the conservation of porpoise.

After retirement, Jan started amateur photography. Now, he says, he walks every day to the river with his camera equipment, trying to notice the animals.

When he receives a few good photos, he refers them to scientists who say he does better work than almost anyone who traces their progress.

Jan says he once saw a port in a disaster that was caught on a net. He informed the local authorities who closed this part of the river about the entire shipping until it could be rescued-and it turned out that the soon-to-be-released porpoise was pregnant. He felt pretty well in this, he says.

However, it is the Porpoise numbers that tell the most convincing story.

In the 1990s there were 3300 endless motorcyclists in nature. By 2006, this was halved.

Then the fishing bans came in, the factories were moved and the decline stopped. Not only that, but in the last five years, records, the number of Porpoise has increased by nearly a quarter.

Scientists are proud of these numbers – and the consequences they have for the health of the environment.

“We save the endless Porpoise to save the Yangtz River,” says Wang Ding. “It’s like a great mirror to have an idea of ​​how well we did by protecting this ecosystem.

“If Porpoises do well, if their number increases, it means that the environmental health of the entire river also improves.”