According to the CBCGDF volunteer, few herds of false killer whales, each consisting of 3-5 whales, were seen at Guanhe estuary at 34.35°E.

China’s false killer whales, mostly found in the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the Donghai Sea, the South China Sea and Taiwan Waters, are listed as national secondary protected animals. In the past, false killer whales, were always seen in Guanhe waters in Lianyunguang, Zhejiang Province in every spring. However, hundreds of enterprises have established in this area amid rapid industrial drive. Part of them turning a blind eye to regulations outlet waste water and dump waste, which takes a heavy toll on local water quality, As a result, less and less false killer whales can be found in the waters.

Public participation serves as a crucial force in biodiversity conservation. In order to encourage and support the local community to join this career, the CBCGDF established “China’s False Killer Protected Area · Lianyungang”. The local volunteer proved the fact that the false killer whales were hardly found after 2008 due to the pollution from those chemical plants.

Back to previous days, dozens of and even hundreds of whales could be seen here; however, this year only 1 or 2 could be rarely found by local fishermen. Given that, volunteers came to visit the fishermen and encourage them to record longitude and latitude and take photos, yet the most of them neither have time to do it nor have mobile phones. Such being the case, volunteers called on the fishermen to give attentions to the whales’ scope of activity and numbers of herd.

Volunteers also mentioned that, “There are many closed drainage pipes. In 2017, we have dug out 10 and more; there are 12 or 13 pipes in total at Guanghe estuary. In early half of this year, sewage outfalls have no more existed as neighboring chemical plants were all closed. Now we can see more false killer whales again. Meanwhile, we have closely followed up pollution episodes and the whales’ activity scope. We appeal for more support from CBCGDF.”

Lately volunteers have still kept an eye on pollution situations when those plants re-opened. In doing so, we have strictly supervised illegal closed drainage pipes and waste outlets and we will report to authorities whenever we find any misconduct.

Mankind, mountains, waters and fields all share the same life community. Whether false killer whales appear or not depends on waters quality of Guanhe River. It entails effort of wider public. As such, we welcome the local fishermen and communities to join this career—— protecting this “panjandrum” ( nickname for false killer whales) and contribute their effort to improving ecological environment of guanhe river.

(Photo source: Internet)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/6291.html

By / LIU Lu