The Yangtze River dolphin is considered functionally extinct. The species of freshwater dolphin, also known as the baiji, had not been sighted since September 2004 despite extensive surveys.
On August 19, 2007 a large white animal was filmed in the Yangtze close to Tongling city in Anhui Province.
The international media has reported:
Wang Kexiong, of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said experts at the institute had confirmed the footage was of a baiji.
But according to the baiji.org Foundaton website:
Wang Ding from the Institute of Hydrobiology, Wuhan, commented on the film he could not give a 100 percent confirmation since the video was of poor quality and taken from a distance of about 1000 metres away.
Scientists of the Institute of Hydrobiology are organising a small survey in the area where the film was taken.
The baiji.org Foundation is co-organizing another survey of the Yantzee River for 2008 .
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You can read about efforts to save the baiji here: http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/001498.html
I have written about the loss of the baiji for the IPA Review: http://jennifermarohasy.com/data/Baiji_%20MAROHASY.pdf
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
” Still Dr. Pitman says there may be other motives behind the enthusiasm for the questionable baiji sighting.
“Not to be too cynical here, but those same people have gotten a lot of their institutional funding for nominally protecting baiji over the last couple of decades — no baiji, no funding,” he told the New York Times”
” “We may have missed one or two baiji during our survey,” Pitman is quoted by New York Times as saying, “but the prognosis remains the same.”