Being called “Jiang Zhu (river pig)”by the locals, Yangtze finless porpoise represents a common animal for the residents living along the riverside. However, as human activities expand, hardly can we see the creatures flipping and jumping in the water nowadays when their habitats are affected by hustle water traffic, fishing operations, water conservancy projects and industrial emissions.
On July 24th, 2018, there are approximately 1012 existing finless porpoises in Yangtze River estimated by Ministry of Agriculture. Among others, 445 finless porpoises can be found in mainstream, 110 in the Dongting Lake and 457 in Poyang Lake. Such being the case, the species is indeed in endanger and facing extinction if there is no effective protections. The finless porpoise has been included as critically endangered species in the Red list of World Conservation Union (IUCN) in 2013, and listed as endangered animal in the Appendix I to Convention CITES. On May 9th, 2017, the special seminar was launched in Shanghai. And the finless porpoises were upgraded from the second to the first class national protected animals through the unanimous proposal.
The waters of Yangtze River in Pengze County, Jiujiang City sees a number of the finless porpoises, yet a few problems, such as rampant illegal fishing and severe pollution caused by multitudes of plants along the river, pose many threats on them. In May, the group of Pengze Finless Porpoises Natural Reserve Center was established with the commitment to finless porpoise protection and environment conservation. The group members have worked with fishery administration and waterborne police to deal with varied illegal acts and tools through surveillance and tip-offs. Their endeavors to cracking down illegal emissions and sand extraction helped to address enormous difficulties for the creature’s existence.
By July 31th, 2018, the center has conducted 429 patrols totaling 3340 hours. Among others, 162 patrols were done in night time. Cooperating with administrations, it has cracked down 49 cases of electric shock fishing, reported 9 times of illegal emitting and 4 times of illegal sand extracting, and destroyed 598 illegal fishing tools including 574 purse nets. And 14 wild birds and 2 endangered fish were rescued. Through these efforts, the security of the waters has been largely strengthened. With great support of the government departments of Pengze County, illegal fishery has been eliminated which has brought guarantees of the finless porpoise’s safety in the waters.
According by Pengze Finless Porpoise Natural Reserve Center, a few finless porpoises have been seen at the estuary of Poyang Lake adjacent to Pengze County. There are around 40 finless porpoises founded in the waters in Pengze, Jiujiang. It’s a given that the waters serve as the key protection area in the trunk stream of the Yangtze River.
In order to gain more powers, in September 2018, Finless Porpoise Protection Network of Pengze Finless Porpoises Reserve Center submitted its applications to CBCGDF for building a China’s protected area in Pengze. As the application was approved, China’s Finless Porpoise Protected Area · Pengze has been officially established by the joint efforts of CBCGDF and Pengze Finless Porpoises Reserve Center. And they will work hand in hand to promote protection works in this region.
(Photo source: Internet)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4855/6345.html
By / LIU Lu