Skip to main content

Catalyst: River porpoise rescue

Posted 
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Aerial view of a porpoise and pup breaching at water surface
Catalyst: River porpoise rescue

SUBJECTS:  Science

YEARS:  7–8


Can you imagine seeing porpoises leaping out of the water in a river near you?

Sounds unlikely, doesn't it, but that's what people living along the banks of the Yangtze River in China often used to see. These Yangtze finless porpoises are now rapidly disappearing.

Find out why and what Chinese scientist Professor Wang Ding and his team are doing to rescue a very special species.


Things to think about

  1. 1.What makes the Yangtze finless porpoise a very special species? (Hint: where are porpoises usually found?) How might the porpoises depend on other organisms in the river? What might be threatening the survival of the species now?
  2. 2.Think about why the Yangtze River is called the 'life blood' of China. Focus on why the river has become a 'death trap' for the porpoises? Then consider why the rescue plan may save the porpoises but harm some of the locals.
  3. 3.The habitat of the Yangtze finless porpoises is being degraded by dredging and passing ships. How would muddy water and noisy ships affect their ability to locate fish and shrimps? (Hint: what sense do they use?) Why are the porpoises being relocated rather than their habitat being restored? How could the rescue plan cater for the needs of the locals as well as those of the porpoises?
  4. 4.Do an internet search on the Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji. Find out what happened to this species. Why might the Yangtze finless porpoise, 'Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis', avoid the same fate?



Date of broadcast: 15 May 2007


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Posted