Dolphin Genocide
[Dolphins are quite possibly as intelligent as we are… can you imagine watching everyone around you dying, your cultural heritage crumbling away with each passing, looking forward you see nothing but more death, and facing the possibility of being one of the last of your kind… swimming fruitlessly through the ocean or river, looking for another person to talk to? Even if we stopped now, and let them recover, this is equivalent to the genoicide imposed on Native American populations after invasion. We’d better hope that no aliens decide to invade and put humanity on trail for crimes against nature and other sentient beings. Our descendants will look back at us in horror and astonishment at our callous indifference to the fate of the natural world and the beings who shared it with us. -Thomas]
Troubled waters for river dolphin
GENEVA, May 14 — A rare freshwater dolphin found only in China’s huge Yangtze River could die out within the next 10 years unless fishing methods there change, a global conservation body said Wednesday.
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In the case of the Yangtze dolphin, surveys conducted in 1985 and 1986 indicated a population of around 300 animals. Between 1997 and 1999, extensive surveys sighted only 21 to 23 dolphins.
“Cetacean diversity, like all biodiversity worldwide, is crumbling, so we must redouble our efforts,” Perrin stated.
