On May 3rd, 2019, the news that a
Chinese white dolphin sighted on the coast near Fenghuojiao, Taishan City,
Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, caused widespread public concern. The local
police and the staff of the Jiangmen Chinese White Dolphin Provincial Nature
Reserve Management Office quickly launched the rescue. They stood guard in the
mud for 7 hours under the high temperature of 34°C, and finally successfully
helped them return to the sea.
Background
The Chinese White Dolphin, also
known as the "Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin," is a national the first-class protected wild animal known as the "Ocean Giant Panda."
It is currently believed that there are four species of humpback dolphins in
the world, namely, Atlantic humpback dolphins, Indian humpback dolphins, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, and Australian humpback dolphins. They
are widely distributed in the coastal waters of the East Atlantic, Indian
Ocean, and Western Pacific. The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin was first
discovered in the waters of the Pearl River Estuary in China due to its unique
body-color changes and type specimens, hence the name "Chinese White Dolphin."
The Chinese white dolphins are distributed discontinuously in the shallow
waters from the East Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and other Southeast Asian
coasts to the Yangtze River's estuary in China mainland. Due to a lack of
research, the exact population size of this species in the entire distribution
area is still a mystery. Preliminary estimates suggest that the population may
be about 13,000 and it is roughly 4,000 to 6,000 in Chinese waters.
For a long time, there is no
distribution data of Chinese white dolphins, and researchers in China and
abroad have generally believed that Chinese white dolphins are mainly distributed
in the coastal waters of Taiwan’s west coast, Xiamen, Pearl River Estuary,
Leizhou Bay, and Beibu Gulf. From October to December 2014, the author’s
research team conducted a 13-day marine survey in the southwestern waters of
Hainan Island. During this period, Chinese white dolphins were observed for six
days. The group size is generally 10 to 40. Etc., Including juveniles and other
individuals of different ages. This discovery pushed the previously known
geographic distribution of this species in China by nearly 300 kilometers
southward.
As a flagship species of coastal
and shallow waters, the Chinese white dolphin has irreplaceable biological and
ecological value. Chinese white dolphins are globally assessed as vulnerable species
in the World Conservation Union Red List of Endangered Species (IUCN) and have
not reached the endangered level. If individual populations are assessed
individually for their endangered levels, most populations may be already
endangered or even critically endangered. Since this species is mostly
dispersed within its range, there is geographic isolation between populations,
and there may be subspecies or even species differentiation.
Risks and threats
In recent years, due to the
continuous enhancement of human development and utilization activities and the
increasing global climate change, biodiversity and its habitats in the South
China Sea have been destroyed and degraded to varying degrees, making the
oceans including Chinese white dolphins breastfeed in China’s seas. Animals are
in a precarious situation. From the perspective of influencing factors, they
are threatened by many aspects such as accidental fishery catch, ship
collision, habitat degradation, environmental pollution, food shortage, etc.,
and most of them face the risk of extinction. For example, with the development
of coastal cities, a large number of coastal development projects, including
land reclamation, sand mining, and marine resource mining have been
continuously launched, and the coastal ecological environment has been destroyed,
seriously threatening the survival of Chinese white dolphins and other humpback dolphins. Studies have shown that in the past 10 to 20 years, many Chinese
white dolphin populations in China coastal waters have experienced substantial
population declines, and individual populations have declined by nearly 50%.
Conservation and future prospectives
Considering the lack of
understanding of the distribution of Chinese white dolphins and other humpback dolphins in West Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and other countries and
regions, scientific research is almost lack, and protection measures are
seriously insufficient or absent. Therefore, the international community
urgently needs to work together and adopt scientific and practical measures to
prevent the extinction of these rare species. Scientists and eco-environmental
protection workers should carry out comprehensive research and scientific
evaluation of different humpback dolphin species, subspecies, and individual
population assessment as soon as possible. Government decision-making and management
departments should take necessary actions to Understand the endangerment levels
and risk factors of each independent population. They should also restrict or
reduce human activities such as fisheries in the habitats of Chinese white
dolphins in order to protect the fishery resources and biodiversity of their
habitats. What needs to be emphasized is that for China’s newly discovered
Chinese white dolphin populations in the South China Sea and other regions,
scientific research should be strengthened. On this basis, transparent and
reasonable protection and action plan should be formulated as soon as possible,
including the planning and implementing of the Chinese white dolphin nature
reserve or ocean national parks, reduction of human activities in related sea
areas, etc., effectively strengthen the protection of the ecological
environment and biodiversity in the northern part of the South China Sea.
Related stories :
More readings :
Reference :
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon