Extinct Dolphins

[dogboy]

Andresont started a thread a while back where he posted a link to one of the most disturbing things I have seen in a while(http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...ight=slaughter).

In that thread there was a post by Myanth which read:

Originally Posted by Myanth

We live a an unforgiving world where more often than not, ignorance rules supreme. One day a story will be written about an amazingly intelligent species that once freely roamed our oceans until their extinction was brought on by the hand of man.

I just thought it ironic that not one month later I came across this story while surfing the web:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/07080...na_environment

Very sad.

[michika]

You are right, that is very sad.

[Moogled]

Sad.

Hopefuls wish there was a way to stop this but the cogs of modern society are too large and lucrative for them to be bothered by what they consider petty concerns.

[trilinearmipmap]

That is very sad.

Some parts of the world are so far behind us in they way they treat nature and the environment. Not that we are perfect either.

[justinl]

I wrote a paper on the baiji two years back and what i found on them still makes me sick just thinking about it. the Yangtze river is a disaster. i assume some of you know about the "great" three Gorges Dam? ugh. that's all i got to say. anyone know how some of the fishermen fish there? some use dynamite to kill the fish, some use electricity, all of which would easily kill a dolphin my messing it's echolocation for obvious reasons. while a bunch of the more crude practices are illegal there, they still continue because there is NOTHING to enforce those laws. did ya know that many fishermen will actually take a SHOTGUN to a dolphin (baiji or otherwise) that attempts to take their catch (stunned from TNT or electricity)? appalling.

a mixture of indifference, lack of education, and a serious overload of apathy is what has brought us to this point in history. not just China mind you, (though they certainly are a major player in crapping up the planet) but the world in general. to say the least, we need to do better.

Baiji were termed "functionally extinct" just last year meaning that even if there IS one or two left, they are destined for extinction very soon. there's no point in even hopin or working towards a recovery. that is from baiji.org which was a site dedicated to baiji but doesn't seem to be up anymore... but may be just my computer.

[dogboy]

Originally Posted by justinl

I wrote a paper on the baiji two years back and what i found on them still makes me sick just thinking about it. the Yangtze river is a disaster. i assume some of you know about the "great" three Gorges Dam? ugh. that's all i got to say. anyone know how some of the fishermen fish there? some use dynamite to kill the fish, some use electricity, all of which would easily kill a dolphin my messing it's echolocation for obvious reasons. while a bunch of the more crude practices are illegal there, they still continue because there is NOTHING to enforce those laws. did ya know that many fishermen will actually take a SHOTGUN to a dolphin (baiji or otherwise) that attempts to take their catch (stunned from TNT or electricity)? appalling.

a mixture of indifference, lack of education, and a serious overload of apathy is what has brought us to this point in history. not just China mind you, (though they certainly are a major player in crapping up the planet) but the world in general. to say the least, we need to do better.

Baiji were termed "functionally extinct" just last year meaning that even if there IS one or two left, they are destined for extinction very soon. there's no point in even hopin or working towards a recovery. that is from baiji.org which was a site dedicated to baiji but doesn't seem to be up anymore... but may be just my computer.

I found it quite disturbing that I was reading an article about I dolphin I had never heard of before and finding out from that same article that the species was now extinct.

I'm sure there are hundreds of examples of the same thing happening but I was quite the reminder that there are creatures in this world that have dissapeared before even being appreciated by more than a handful of people......