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. 2007 Oct 22;3(5):537-40.
doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0292.

First human-caused extinction of a cetacean species?

Samuel T Turvey  1 , Robert L Pitman, Barbara L Taylor, Jay Barlow, Tomonari Akamatsu, Leigh A Barrett, Xiujiang Zhao, Randall R Reeves, Brent S Stewart, Kexiong Wang, Zhuo Wei, Xianfeng Zhang, L T Pusser, Michael Richlen, John R Brandon, Ding Wang
Affiliations

First human-caused extinction of a cetacean species?

Samuel T Turvey et al. Biol Lett. .

Abstract

The Yangtze River dolphin or baiji (Lipotes vexillifer), an obligate freshwater odontocete known only from the middle-lower Yangtze River system and neighbouring Qiantang River in eastern China, has long been recognized as one of the world's rarest and most threatened mammal species. The status of the baiji has not been investigated since the late 1990s, when the surviving population was estimated to be as low as 13 individuals. An intensive six-week multi-vessel visual and acoustic survey carried out in November-December 2006, covering the entire historical range of the baiji in the main Yangtze channel, failed to find any evidence that the species survives. We are forced to conclude that the baiji is now likely to be extinct, probably due to unsustainable by-catch in local fisheries. This represents the first global extinction of a large vertebrate for over 50 years, only the fourth disappearance of an entire mammal family since AD 1500, and the first cetacean species to be driven to extinction by human activity. Immediate and extreme measures may be necessary to prevent the extinction of other endangered cetaceans, including the sympatric Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis).

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Yangtze River dolphin or baiji (Lipotes vexillifer). Male individual (‘Qi Qi’), held at the Wuhan dolphinarium from 1980 to 2002.
Figure 2
Figure 2
November–December 2006 survey route, covering entire historical distribution of baiji in the main Yangtze channel.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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