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| The endangered pink river dolphin livs in South America's rivers. Courtesy of Foundation Omacha/WWF |
A quest to save South America's freshwater dolphins
Biologists comb the continent's major rivers, counting mammals threatened by deforestation, pollution, and fishing.
from the August 9, 2007 edition
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A similar survey is being conducted in Asia, where different species of river dolphins live, though just barely. The baiji dolphin in China's Yangtze River was declared extinct last year, and those of the Indus, Ganges, and Mekong rivers are on the endangered list.
Hope remains, though, for the river dolphins of South America where huge development projects are still on the drawing boards. The major threats for the moment are habitat change due to deforestations, pollution from gold and other mining, and getting caught in nets of local fisherman.
Historically, the bufeo has been spared human persecution because of beliefs that it has special powers. Riverside communities tell tales of women impregnated by dolphins or how each dolphin is an incarnation of a man.
A plea to spare the dolphins
Today however, fishermen increasingly view them as an unwanted competitor for fish. All along the Ichilo river, fishermen in wooden canoes cast their nets hoping to catch pacú, surubí, or sábalo to sell on the local market.
Before setting out on the expedition, Trujillo and Belgium-born biologist Paul Van Damme, director of the Bolivian conservation group Faunagua, explained to a group of fishermen in the town of Puerto Villaroel what the trip was about and how the bufeo could eventually bring much-needed income to their communities through ecotourism.
Fisherman Fortunato Vargas was unconvinced by the sales pitch. To him, dolphins are a nuisance. "When one gets caught in our nets, it eats half of our fish, and the best ones, too. Of course we get angry. So we kill it," he says, adding that the dolphin can be used as medicine.
Conservation biologist Enrique Crespo, the Latin American coordinator of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, accompanied the team of scientists on the Ichilo expedition. Once the count is complete, he says, the difficult work will be agreeing on a conservation plan that takes into account the needs and attitudes of the people who live side by side with the dolphins. "Science is science, conservation is about politics," he says.
Here on Bolivia's Ichilo River, Trujillo and his team of Bolivian and Colombian biologists were pleased with their results and pleased to see little human impact on the area. In over 550 linear kilometers, they sighted 485 dolphins.
Other countries show more alarming figures. "Ecuador was troubling," says Trujillo. In seven days, only 33 pink dolphins were spotted. And in Colombia they found dolphins poisoned with mercury, apparently from eating fish downstream in Venezuela contaminated by gold mining operations along the Orinoco River.
"The threats that the species faces in both [the Orinoco and the Amazon] watershed are the same, though in some countries they are stronger than in others," says Trujillo.
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