Feature: Efforts to protect rare porpoises in China's largest freshwater lake intensified

NANCHANG, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Despite the scorching temperature of 35 degrees Celsius, a fishery administration vessel set off at 8:30 a.m. as usual from the north shore of China's largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, sailing along the waterway in search of endangered finless porpoises.

The Yangtze finless porpoise is the only freshwater subspecies of the finless porpoise family. The IUCN-listed critically endangered species, only found in parts of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, has nearly half of its population living in Poyang Lake.

In January 2020, the game-changing 10-year fishing ban went into effect in pivotal waters of the river, which has greatly improved the living conditions of the porpoises as their newborns continue to trickle in.

"As Poyang Lake enters the dry season, finless porpoises are spotted more often," said 50-year-old Zhan Baishan, head of the local finless porpoise rescue team in Duchang County, east China's Jiangxi Province.

"We've been neighbors with finless porpoises since we were kids. They live underwater, and we live on the surface," added Zhan, whose family has lived on the boat for generations.

He is, however, a bit concerned for the species. "Recently, the water level of Poyang Lake has dropped sharply. We have to patrol the lake every day to prevent the porpoises from entering the main waterway and injuring themselves," Zhan said.

Of late, drought conditions triggered by sustained hot weather and low precipitation in Jiangxi have reduced the lake by 75 percent, according to local authorities.

The lake officially entered this year's dry season on Aug. 6, the earliest date since records started in 1951 and 69 days earlier than the average starting date between 2003 and 2021.

In recent years, an aquatic life protection and rescue center has been established in Jiangxi, attracting more than 2,000 volunteers to set up 203 patrol teams. This has formed a relatively comprehensive patrol and rescue network for the finless porpoises, playing a major role in safeguarding the wildlife despite the rare drought.

When the boat reached Songmenshan around 9 a.m., three porpoises jumped out of the water. "There's a mother and her baby," Zhan shouted out excitedly. As the patrol team sailed along the way, they spotted at least 10 porpoises.

He said he was glad that it is now quite common to see the rare porpoises in the lake these days, which indicates the growing population of the species.

When the boat approached the shallow water, Yu Shunyuan, member of the county's fishery administration team, took a bamboo pole and stuck it to the bottom of the lake to assess the water depth in case the porpoises run aground.

"We would patrol on foot where the boat cannot reach. If there are shrimp pots left by the lake or garbage discarded by passing boats, we will clean them up to avoid scratching the finless porpoises," Yu said.

After the boat reached the shore, Yu, Zhan and the rest of the crew jumped onto the grassy land and began their daily patrol of about half an hour. After the lunch break, they would continue their ride in the other direction.

According to the forecast, the weather with high temperatures and little rain will continue in Jiangxi Province in the coming week, and the water level in Poyang Lake will continue to decline.

Thankfully, patrol and rescue volunteers are intensifying their efforts for wildlife habitat protection to safeguard the finless porpoises, migrating birds, and other species.