Yangtze finless porpoise in Yangtze River, China 2006

Zhao Xiujiang, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Dataset credit

Zhao Xiujiang, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wang Ding, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Contacts

RoleNameOrganization 
Primary contact Zhao Xiujiang Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Data entry Ei Fujioka Duke University

Citation

Abstract

The Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis) is endemic to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China. It is the only freshwater population of porpoises in the world and is currently listed as Endangered by IUCN. In November and December 2006, we used two boats and line transect methods to survey the entire current range of the population, except for two lakes (Poyang and Dongting). When on-effort, one boat surveyed 3,100 km with 240 sightings and a mean group size of 1.87 resulting in 0.077 sightings/km, while the other boat surveyed 3,065 km with 198 sightings and a mean group size of 2.05 resulting in 0.065 sightings/km.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to search for baiji and evaluate the status of Yangtze finless porpoise.

Supplemental information

Baiji was announced to be likely extinct after this range-wide survey since not a single baiji was found during this survey (Turvey et al. 2007).

References

Zhao, X.J., J. Barlow, B.L. Taylor, R.L. Pitman, K.X. Wang, Z. Wei, B.S. Stewart, S.T. Turvey, T. Akamatsu, R.R. Reeves and D. Wang. 2008. Abundance and conservation status of the Yangtze finless porpoise in the Yangtze River, China. Biological Conservation. 141(12): 3006-3018.
Turvey, S.T., R.L. Pitman, B.L. Taylor, J. Barlow, T. Akamatsu, L.A. Barrett, X.J. Zhao, R.R. Reeves, B.S. Stewart, K.X. Wang, Z. Wei, X.F. Zhang, L.T. Pusser, M. Richlen, J.R. Brandon and D. Wang. 2007. First human-caused extinction of a cetacean species?. Biology Letters. 3(5): 537-540.

Attributes

Overview

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downloadable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission.

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)Description
oid
boatName of the boat
longitudeLongitude in decimal degrees
latitudeLatitude in decimal degrees
obs_countGroup size
obs_dateDate
obs_timeTime. No second part provided
sp_tsnITIS taxonomic serial number. This field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
OBIS-SEAMAP ID559
Seabirds0
Marine mammals640
Sea turtles0
Rays and sharks0
Other species0
Non spatial0
Non species0
Total640
Date, Begin2006-11-06
Date, End2006-12-13
Temporal prec.111111
Latitude29.44 - 32.30
Longitude112.20 - 121.37
Coord. prec.3 decimal digits
PlatformBoat
Data typeAnimal sighting
EffortN/A
Traveled (km)0
0
Contr. through
Registered2010-01-14
Updated2013-08-29
StatusPublished
Sharing policy CC-BY-NC (Minimum)
Shared with OBIS
GBIF (via DOI)
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See metadata in FGDC XML
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