1st cetacean extinction seen in China

WUHAN, China, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- China's Yangtze River dolphin looks to be the first cetacean -- the family of dolphins, porpoises and whales -- to be made extinct by man, a report said.

Less than 50 of the gray and white "baiji" as they are known in China survive and none has been seen since July, The Times of London reported.

The dolphins have been trapped in fishing nets, sucked into ship and tourist boat propellers, poisoned by pollution and blocked from moving by the huge Three Gorges Dam.

"I am a little pessimistic," said Hao Yujiang, a researcher at the Hydrobiology Institute Institute in Wuhan, China. "It is not possible to improve the environment of the river in the foreseeable future."

Scientists and environmentalists concentrated on saving a cousin, the finless porpoise or Neophocaena phocaenoides.

Twenty-three of the estimated 1,000 surviving finless porpoises have been moved to Tian'ezhou Lake in the effort backed by the institute and World Wide Fund for Nature. However, that would affect 500 families that make their living from the lake.