Editorial: Declaring a species extinct

Thursday, Jan. 4, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

T hree weeks ago the existence of a rare species of Chinese river dolphin quietly slipped from the face of the Earth as scientists declared it effectively extinct.

White and nearly blind, the baiji was a 20 million-year-old species that most recently lived in eastern China's Yangtze River. The Chinese called it the "goddess of the Yangtze." But even honorary royalty, as it turns out, could not protect this marine mammal from habitat degradation and overfishing.

Chinese and Swiss scientists declared the dolphin "functionally extinct" after an intensive six-week study of the river failed to turn up any evidence of a single baiji. One scientist told the Associated Press that it marks "the end of a whole branch of evolution."

Experts say it also is the first species to die off as an indirect result of human activity and pollution. Other species have become extinct after being the target of relentless hunting and fishing. But the baiji suffered the collateral damage of fishing for other species, polluted waters and ship traffic that interfered with the sonar that the dolphin used to find food.

"The canary in the coal mine is dead," Robert Pitman, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote in a Dec. 26 commentary in The New York Times. Problems that plagued the baiji also have attacked the Yangtze's paddlefish, which hasn't been seen since 2003, Pitman said. The Yangtze sturgeon breeds only in captivity.

While the Chinese certainly have benefited economically from their activities in and around the river, the death of an entire species and the perilous existence of at least two others illustrate a failure to appropriately balance industry and habitat management. This is why the United States has such laws as the Endangered Species Act and requires strict environmental reviews for development.

The world should take note of the extinction of a rare dolphin species in China, for it shows that some damage cannot be undone.