04/29/09 -- “Below the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, there's a corpse of a Yangtze River Dolphin!*” Yesterday afternoon, city residents discovered the corpse of an aquatic mammal beside a pier on the south bank of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, but after expert examination, the animal did not turn out to be the long-missing Yangtze River Dolphin, but a finless porpoise**, or 'river pig' as it is called colloquially.

At 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon, this reporter climbed over the embankment at the Bridge Park and saw the body of a finless porpoise on the beach beside a bridge pier. The corpse was about 1.3 meters long and basically intact, with one fin stuck in the silt as river water washed over it. Because it had been immersed for a long time, the black epidermis had already mostly fallen away, exposing the white dermal layer underneath. The residents, having seen the white dermal layer, mistakenly thought that the white aquatic animal was the precious Yangtze River Dolphin. The people at the scene noticed that the porpoise's abdomen had an elliptical wound about 4 cm wide and more than 10 cm long. Some speculate that the finless porpoise might have been struck by the propeller of a fishing boat and was washed onto the beach after it died. The residents pointed to the porpoise corpse and said, regretfully, “Even though we were born beside this river, it's been more than 10 years since we've seen a finless porpoise. It's rare nowadays!”

A worker at the Nanjing City Bureau of Agriculture's Fisheries Department*** explained that the finless porpoise resembles a dolphin, with a body length of about 1.5 meters and a weight of 100-200 kg. It is a National Level 2 Protected Animal****. Its body is either lead gray or greyish white. The head is roundish, the forehead bulging slightly forward; the mouth is rather short. The flippers are relatively wide, pointed at the ends, and about one-sixth the length of the body. The tail fins are also rather large with two horizontal flaps about one-fourth the body length.

The experts found it amusing that the city residents mistook the finless porpoise for the Yangtze River Dolphin as the two are very different and not even in the same family*****. “The Yangtze River Dolphin's mouth is long and narrow and the back appears light gray or blue, with a dull white belly; the dorsal fin is shaped as a small triangle. The finless porpoise is greenish black and does not have a dorsal fin. According to reports******, in November of 2006, scientists from six countries, including China and the United States, formed an expedition to search for traces of the Yangtze River Dolphin and the Yangtze finless porpoise, but they did not find a single Yangtze River Dolphin. The finless porpoise's survival was deemed in jeopardy, its numbers dwindling each year.

(Mr. Chang received 50 RMB in compensation for tipping off the paper)

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*The aquatic mammal referred to here is also called 白鱀豚 in Chinese. The animal also goes by the English names 'baiji' or 'white flag dolphin', among other monikers. The genus and species are Lipotes vexillifer.

**The genus and species of this animal are Neophocaena phoconoides.

***An official translation for this organization could not be ascertained.

****The 'protected animal' designation in China is roughly analogous to a spot on the Endangered Species List in the United States.

*****The families of the Yangtze River Dolphin and the finless porpoise are Lipotidae and Phocoenidae, respectively.

******An English article about the expedition can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/weekinreview/17basics.html.

By Kuaibao reporters Shi Zhongyin (article) and Shi Xianghui (photography)

--Translated by D. Owen Young

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