Chinese paddlefish may be extinct in Yangtze River

By Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com, October 22, 2009 In December of 2006 it was announced that the Yangtze River dolphin, commonly known as the baiji, had succumbed to extinction. The dolphin had survived on earth for 20 million years, but the species couldn’t survive the combined onslaught of pollution, habitat loss, boat traffic, entanglement in fishing hooks, death from illegal electric fishing, and the construction of several massive dams. Now, another flagship species of the Yangtze River appears to have vanished. As reported by the BBC last month, a three year quest to find the Chinese paddlefish has revealed not one sighting. The story is remarkably similar to that of December 2006 when a six week expedition failed to find any sign of the baiji. Reaching a staggering seven meters, the Chinese paddlefish is one of the largest freshwater fish in the world. So little is known about the species that biologists aren’t even certain it can properly be referred to as ‘freshwater’, since the fish may cross between the freshwaters of the Yangtze River to oceanic environments. But no one knows for sure. The expedition to find the Chinese paddlefish deployed over 4000 setline and over 900 nets, but couldn’t find a single giant fish, which has been classified by the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered for over a decade. Despite their inability to locate the Chinese paddlefish, expedition leaders like Professor Wei Qiwei, believe there is still a good chance that some survive. …

The Yangtze River may have lost another inhabitant: the Chinese paddlefish