Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
China, China China. What am I to think of China. With all the bad news, bad products and bad feelings swirling around China these days suddenly and inexplicably the rare white dolphin has been filmed in the Yangtze River.
The little guy that spotted the, thought to be extinct, rare white dolphin said he had never seen such a large creature in the river before so he filmed it.
What a stroke of good fortune coming on the heels of all that bad fortune. Good fortune on all accounts in fact. China needed some good news to send to the rest of the world.
Good fortune that seemingly the only fellow to see the rare white dolphin, thought to be extinct happened to have a video camera handy.
Good fortune with Beijing hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics they will now be able to sell Olympic accouterments sporting the rare white dolphin. You may remember the white dolphin being sported on everything from ball caps and coffee mugs to kites during the Hong Kong handover celebrations in ‘97.
Good fortune that after not seeing hide nor hair of the rare white dolphin for years and after a top notch team of Zoologists spent an intense and unprecedented 6 week search for the rare white dolphin and came up empty.
The last time the dolphin had been spotted was in 2002 the same year the last baiji, rare white dolphin, died in captivity. The elite survey team including the US, Britain, Japan and China failed to site or find any evidence there were any surviving baiji.
The baiji as the Chinese call it numbered more than 5,000 less than one hundred years ago. Experts say there needs to be at least 50 to keep the gene pool from degenerating and the rare dolphin from going extinct after an illustrious run of more than 20-million-years.
The white dolphin had no enemies in its natural habitat save man who created devastating pollution, illegally fished, and ran them down with ships…
Good fortune for the Chinese indeed…color me dubious, but ever hopeful.
The timing of the sighting of the white dolphin couldn’t be better as Hong Kong Dolphinwatch, a commercial dolphin watching tour company entices tourists to tour their dolphin habitat.
“Welcome to the Year of the Dolphin!
2007 is also the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong’s reunion with Mainland China. Chinese White Dolphins here were made the official mascot of the 1997 Handover; ten years have passed, how are those mascots doing today? What has Hong Kong done to protect them? Can anyone say that we have done enough to eliminate the threats that they have been facing? What does the Hong Kong Government have in mind for their future?”
“Hong Kong Dolphinwatch has been dolphin watching since 1995 and witnessed the changes before and after the Handover. We hope we will have the chance to take you to our dolphins’ habitat and show you the remaining population of our lovely threatened pink dolphins, and let us tell you what our answers to the above questions are.”
Labels: China, Chinese, Dolphin, Rare, White Dolphin
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Rare Chinese White Dolphin Thought to be Extinct Maybe Alive After All!
