Project suspended to make way for finless porpoises

A 500 million yuan waterway construction project has been suspended to make way for the black finless porpoise, an endangered species in China's Yangtze River. [File photo]

A 500 million yuan waterway construction project has been suspended to make way for the black finless porpoise, an endangered species in China's Yangtze River, the China Youth Daily reported.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection announced on its website on Nov. 27 that the second stage of the project to build a channel at the Anqing River -- a section of the Yangtze River in Anhui Province -- had been suspended after taking the project's impact on black finless porpoises into consideration. This is unprecedented in the history of the country's water conservancy projects.

The black finless porpoise is a 1.9-meter-long cetacean creature which has been living in the Yangtze River for 25 million years. Due to the impact of human activities, particularly engineering projects over the past few decades, the number of black finless porpoises has drastically decreased to less than 1,000. In 1996, black finless porpoises were included by the International Union for Conservation of Nature on its list of "extremely endangered" species.

Yu Daoping, a professor and expert in biology at Anqing Teachers' College, said that engineering projects are an important part of national development in developing countries, and black finless porpoises naturally were often a lower priority than various engineering projects in China.

Since 2006, nearly 30 water conservancy projects have been analyzed and approved to be implemented in a nature reserve in the Xinluo section of the Yangtze River, which is under state-level protection.

"The latest statement issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection to make way for black finless porpoises shows that the central government has attached great importance to the protection of wild animals in the area," said Professor Yu, adding "it is a good start."

Black finless porpoises in extinction crisis

The news of the suspension of the hugely expensive waterway construction project dealt a heavy blow to the Yangtze River Waterway Bureau, local governments and construction companies. The completion of the project as scheduled would have produced great economic benefits and would have had a direct bearing on the local economy and people's livelihoods.

The Anhui section of the Yangtze is home to the most densely concentrated population of black finless porpoises. About 200 of the porpoises live there, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the total number of black finless porpoises in the river.

Zhang Xinqiao, a researcher at IUCN, said that the area could become a shelter for black finless porpoises mainly due to its wealth of lakes and tributaries of the Yangtze River and its relatively slow economic development.

Zhang said that the threats posed by water conservancy projects to the survival of aquatic creatures in the Yangtze River are permanent. Changes in hydrological conditions can cause the degradation of fishery resources, resulting in food shortages for the black finless porpoises. During project construction, high-strength building materials like stones, concrete and steel bars can harden the riverbanks and riverbeds, directly damaging the breeding habitats of black finless porpoises.

Black finless porpoises are in dire straits, said Zhang. With the worsening of their living environment, the number of black finless porpoises has dropped year by year from 3,600 in 1990 to 1,800 in 2006 and to 1,040 in 2012. "Very likely, black finless porpoises will be totally extinct from China within 10 years," he added.

Tang Wenqiao, a professor at Shanghai Ocean University, said that some clever porpoises choose to hide in sand pits left behind by large projects, but when the water level drops, those porpoises who have no time to swim away will be trapped in the pits and will dry out and die.

A rescue center has now been built in the area to rescue black finless porpoises and help protect the surrounding environment.

Official responses and measures

At the end of 2006, an international working group composed of scientists from six countries carried out an investigation of the existence of white-flag dolphins along the Yangtze River from Yichang in Hubei Province to Shanghai. The scientists didn't find any trace of the creature.

White-flag dolphins are a freshwater dolphin found only in China's Yangtze River. The news that "white-flag dolphins are probably extinct" was later widely published in Western media and was even listed as one of the "top 10 artificially created disasters of 2007" by the United States' Time magazine.

With the probable disappearance of white-flag dolphins, black finless porpoises have become the "flagship" species of the Yangtze River. To steer clear of the same disastrous course, both the central and local governments have devoted attention to the rescue and protection of the endangered creature.

On Oct 14, 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture issued a statement announcing that the finless porpoises in the Yangtze River were listed as a species under first-level state protection. Anyone who illegally hunts black finless porpoises will face criminal prosecution.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection suspended another two waterway construction projects on the Yangtze River in May and in September last year.

This latest suspension of the 500-million-yuan waterway construction project has been regarded as a favorable development in the drive to protect the porpoises. Local officials said that they will help strengthen local people's environmental protection awareness and compensate them for all consequences arising from the decision to halt the project.