A Chinese biologist kneels beside the lifeless body of a finless porpoise. She cries openly. It was 2022, and that scene, captured in a photograph, sums up a tragedy that has been silently unfolding for decades.
The finless porpoise is the only freshwater porpoise in the world, and it lives only in the Yangtze River. When this photo was taken, barely 1,000 living specimens remained. Its cousin, the Chinese river dolphin, is already functionally extinct in that same waterway, and no one wants history to repeat itself.
Active fishing, engine noise, chemicals dumped into the water, and boat traffic are directly responsible for this silent slaughter. The good news is that, since China banned fishing in the river, the population has risen to around 1,500 porpoises.
The bad news is that this balance remains fragile, and a single season of indifference could wipe it all out again.
