Poyang Lake has always been an important habitat for finless porpoises, but according to Jimu News reported on September 3, due to the drought in the Yangtze River Basin, many finless porpoises have been found stranded and died in Panyang Lake, which has aroused widespread concern.
Multiple dead finless porpoises were found in the waters of Poyang Lake
Poyang Lake is located in Yongxiu County, Jiujiang, Jiangxi, the finless porpoise was found by a donkey friend on the north shore of the lake, it is understood that this is already the seventh porpoise body found in Poyang Lake this year, so the cause of the death of these finless porpoises is the drought in the lake?
Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in the mainland, is also a typical lake in the lake, in the flood season in previous years, Poyang Lake will have a significant rise in water level, the lake area expansion, from a distance to see that there is a general ocean-like wide, but Poyang Lake in recent years the flood season suddenly shortened, the dry period came early, the area of the lake water gradually shrunk.
At 8 o'clock on September 6, according to the Detection Station of Poyang Lake, the water level in the lake dropped to 7.99 meters, Poyang Lake has entered the dry period in advance, through the comparison of data from previous years, 2022 has become the earliest year since 1951 was recorded, Poyang Lake entered the dry period, and the water level also reached a new historical low, and the relevant departments issued a drought blue warning for this purpose.
Poyang Lake, as one of the main tributaries of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, is seriously affected by changes in the waters of the Yangtze River, due to drought and other reasons, resulting in various tributaries of the Yangtze River have been reduced in water to varying degrees, which also makes Poyang Lake enter the dry period in advance, and the amount of water is seriously reduced. The arrival of the dry water period will not only squeeze the space for aquatic organisms, but also seriously reduce the number of aquatic organisms, leaving the finless porpoise without sufficient food.
Effects of drought on marine animals such as finless porpoises
On September 5, the reporter interviewed the donkey friend who found the death of the finless porpoise, it is reported that the finless porpoise was found when he was camping on the beach of Poyang Lake on the evening of September 3, when there were not only the corpses of the finless porpoises on the beach, but also many dead fish corpses, so the donkey friends took some photos and videos on the morning of the 4th to record, and then the bodies of the finless porpoises were transported away by the agricultural department of Jiangxi Province. Because the finless porpoise had no trauma and the cause of death was unclear, experts froze it and dissected it to analyze its cause of death.
Although we cannot be sure that the death of the finless porpoise is related to the drought in Poyang Lake, the drought does have a very serious impact on other aquatic organisms such as the finless porpoise. The causes of the death of these aquatic organisms, we are usually divided into natural death and unnatural death, natural death is the normal death of organisms with the reproduction of the ecological circle, the reason for non-natural death is mainly stranded, the original, the bottom of Poyang Lake is not flat, there are pits like the surface of the moon, once the lake begins to ebb tide, some of the creatures that have not been evacuated in time will be trapped by small puddles, these small puddles will continue to rise under the influence of high temperature, just like a steamer, Within a few days, all the creatures in the puddle would be dead.
According to the relevant personnel of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, the current finless porpoise is in a critical period of newborn feeding, but it coincides with the depletion of the water in Poyang Lake, and many small fish and shrimp are dying due to drought, which directly leads to the lack of food resources of the finless porpoise and seriously affects the survival of the finless porpoise.
Relevant departments take protective measures against finless porpoises
In 2011, Xinhua News Agency published a photo titled "Crying Porpoise", which attracted the pity of many netizens, a porpoise lying on the cold beach with its eyes closed, covered in dirty mud, forever sleeping in the wind and sand.
With the disappearance of white-tipped dolphin and white sturgeon species, the finless porpoise is currently the only freshwater mammal in the Yangtze River, so it has been set as a first-class protected animal by the state and has been closely observed and protected. There are nearly 450 finless porpoises in the Poyang Lake, Jiangxi Province, accounting for about 50% of the total number of finless porpoises in the world, and as a representative of aquatic organisms in the Yangtze River waters, the number of finless porpoises is an indicator of the health of the Yangtze River aquatic ecosystem.
Since the drought in Poyang Lake, considering that the finless porpoise will also be seriously affected, the relevant local departments have urgently taken protective measures for the finless porpoise, reducing the number of boats traveling in the porpoise activity area as much as possible, and sending patrol teams to watch and return with drones every day. Conservation personnel also released 1,200 kilograms of live small fish into the Poyang Lake Porpoise Core Conservation Area to replenish food for the finless porpoises with scarce food resources in a timely manner.
Not only that, the porpoise protection department also issued a map of the waters where the finless porpoise is easy to run aground to the relevant cities and counties, and worked with the cities and counties to overcome the drought and protect the finless porpoise, which is estimated that the porpoise will wake up laughing at night, swim to the ear of the protection personnel and say: Bodhisattva, thank you.