"Species cannot be expected to save themselves, and intervention may need to be swift and decisive., But instead of positive intervention on behalf of critically endangered species, I found to my disgust that the world of international conservation seemed at times to consist only of press releases and empty promises; worst of all, it was a world without accountability. I realize now that by the time I became involved, it was probably already too late to do anything for the baiji."
In recent weeks, the actions of the Trump Administration (specifically the roll-back of laws and official protections) have caused many conservation-minded Americans to voice deep concerns about the plight of endangered species, both in America and around the world. Too often, I've seen people dismiss these concerns as alarmist. I think I understand why. Many of the species that we are concerned about have been endangered for so long that it seems like a permanent status quo; when I was a kid, the books all made it sound like elephants would be extinct by 2000, and they're still with us in 2025. Extinction may be forever, as the slogan tells us, but in many cases it also feels impossible.
So it's worth remembering. Species do go extinct. Some of them are being lost in real time. Conservation biologist Samuel Turvey shares one of the more recent, and more tragic, examples of a recent extinction. He was intimately involved in the last ditch effort to save the baiji, the white freshwater dolphin of China's Yangtze River. His story is Witness to Extinction - How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin.
As Turvey explains it, part of the tragedy of the baiji is that no one wanted it to go extinct. There was no hunting, no deliberate effort to harm the dolphins. Instead, it was an innocent bystander. The dolphins died from pollution of the heavily-traveled river, entanglement in fish nets, and collisions with boats. Nor was it's demise unforeseen. For decades, people had been shouting out that the dolphins were in peril; with Turvey being one of the loudest voices. Plans were made; to collect nets from the river, too clean up pollution, and, most importantly, to capture the remaining dolphins and isolate them in a protected oxbow where they could breed and replenish their numbers. Or at least stop dying. Every effort ran into the brick walls of the Chinese bureaucracy and the relative indifference of the global conservation community (including some very strange personalities, including a conman of a conservationist who seemed intent on pulling all the strings, for what reason I still don't know).
The book culminates in the 2006 expedition to search the river for the last dolphins. I don't think I'm giving anything away (I mean, it says so in the book's title) when I say that none were found.
The book is compellingly written, an excellent synopsis of the natural history of this shy cetacean and its gradual demise. What makes it all the more impressive is that you know how the story ends, but still find it a gripping read. Mostly because of the tragedy of it all, but also just because of how unbelievable it was. When I read the passage about how the supposed leading Chinese expert on the species, and the last biologist to see them in the wild, ended up not being able to recognize the species, and was misidentifying a separate porpoise species for the baiji, I felt like I needed to lie down for a minute so my head would stop hurting. And reading about how some "baiji" were conveniently spotted and reported just after the survey left felt deeply suspicious and cynical.
The species - the last representative of an entire family of mammals - is still officially listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, but yeah, it's gone. We, as a species and as a community, have failed it, which is a tragedy (the mantle of most-endangered marine mammal has now passed to the vaquita... and I wouldn't get too attached to them either). And the sure way to compound that tragedy is to refuse to learn our lesson, and let history repeat itself. Which it seems like we're 100% committed to doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment