20 YEARS AGO, DOUGLAS ADAMS FORETOLD THE FATE OF THE YANGTZE DOLPHIN

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

FLYING SQUID BLOG - In his 1988 Last Chance to See, Hitchhiker
Guide-author Douglas Adams compared the baiji's plight, mostly due to
fishing in the Yangtze, to that of "a deaf man in a discotheque." Adams
traveled around the world with naturalist Mark Carwardine to see some of
the most endangered species on the planet. His account of trying to see
the Baiji dolphin is both moving and funny:

DOUGLAS ADAMS, LAST CHANCE TO SEE, 1988 - To begin with, the baiji
dolphin is half-blind.

The reason for this is that there is nothing to see in the Yangtze. The
water is so muddy now that visibility is not much more than a few
centimeters, and as a result the baiji's eyes have atrophied through
disuse. . .

As a consequence, the baiji had to use a different sense to find its way
around. It relies on sound. It has incredibly acute hearing, and 'sees'
by echolocation, emitting sequences of tiny clicks and listening for the
echoes. It also communicates with other baijis by making whistling
noises.

Since man invented the engine, the baiji's river world must have become
a complete nightmare. . .

'All the stroboscopic lights and flares and mirrors and lasers and
things. Constantly confusing information. After a day or two you'd
become completely bewildered and disoriented and start to fall over the
furniture.'

'Well, that's exactly what's happening, in fact. The dolphins are
continually being hit by boats or mangled in their propellers or tangled
in fishermen's nets. . .

'So,' I said, 'what do you do if you are either half-blind, or
half-deaf, living in a discotheque with a stroboscopic light show, where
the sewers are overflowing, the ceiling and the fans keep crashing on
your head and the food is bad?'

'I think I'd complain to the management.'

'They can't.'

'No. They have to wait for the management to notice.'

MUCH MORE
http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://
flyingsquidblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/goodbye-to-baiji-dolphin.html


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||