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China reports `extinct' dolphin sighting

A Chinese white dolphin jumps out of the water off of Hong Kong on Sept. 15, 2000. PHOTO: AP

A white dolphin native to China's Yangtze River that scientists declared extinct last year has possibly been spotted swimming in the wild, offering a small shred of hope for the animal's revival, a researcher said.

Wang Ding (王丁), a researcher with the Institute of Hydrobiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said on Wednesday that a man saw and shot a video of what appears to be a baiji, or white flag dolphin, in Anhui Province on Aug. 19.

The baiji dolphin survived for millions of years but was declared effectively extinct last December after a fruitless six-week search of its Yangtze River habitat.

Wang said the animal in the footage looks and acts like a baiji and was seen about 40km downstream from Anhui's Tongling City -- a section of the river that used to be known as a hotspot for the dolphins.

But he said he could not be 100 percent sure because the video was taken from a distance of about 1,000m and is not very clear.

A team of scientists will travel to the area next month to look for the dolphin, he said.

If China were able to bring the animal back from the brink of extinction, it would help bolster a national image badly tarnished by severe air and water pollution.

The government says a quarter of the length of the nation's seven main river systems are so polluted that even touching the water is harmful to skin. Seven of the nine major lakes the agency monitors were equally toxic.

August Pfluger, a Swiss economist turned naturalist who helped put together last year's expedition, called the possible sighting "a big surprise" and "incredibly fantastic news."

"We declared the animal extinct so if there is one left, that would be fantastic," Pfluger said.

But even if one or more baiji are left, Pfluger and Wang both said they still consider the animal "functionally extinct."

Any surviving baiji are unlikely to be able to find each other for breeding in the huge river and are threatened by ship traffic, overfishing and the degradation of their habitat, Pfluger said.

"We don't have good hope for the future of the baiji," Wang said. "It will be gone for sure pretty soon."

If any wild baiji are found, scientists will try to capture them and move them to a reserve where they would try to breed them if possible, Wang said.

Around 400 baiji were believed to be living in the Yangtze in the early 1980s, when China was just launching the free-market reforms that have transformed its economy.
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