A Chinese scientist has submitted a proposal to the State Council to launch a finless porpoise tourism project on the Yangtze River, similar to international whale watch programs.

 

Wang Kexiong, an expert with the Hydrobiology Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who participated in the fruitless search for white-flag dolphins along the river at the end of last year, believes the program would help protect the endangered species.

 

"The program would involve regulating shipping and curbing overfishing and pollution which would help rebuild the habitat of the river's finless porpoises," he told China Youth Daily.

 

He said California of the United States launched the whale watch program, a tourism package mainly for organizing tourists to watch whales as early as in 1955. The similar program has been introduced to nearly one hundred countries to date.

 

The program, similar to the whale watch program launched in California in 1955, will reap remarkable tourism revenues, but cause almost no pollution, he said.

 

Busy ship traffic has been found to interfere with the sonar dolphins and finless porpoises use to find food. Fishing nets and pollution are other major contributing factors to the decline of the species.

 

International scientists failed to find a single white-flag dolphin during an expedition from November to December last year. The majority of experts agree the species is "functionally extinct".

 

Experts predict there are only 1,200 to 1,400 finless porpoise currently inhabiting the Yangtze mainstream, Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2007)