Yangtze finless porpoises along the main channel of Poyang Lake,China: Implications for conservation |
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| Authors: | Lijun Dong Ding Wang Kexiong Wang Songhai li Zhigang Mei Shiyong Wang Tomonari Akamatsu Satoko Kimura |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China;2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;3. Marine Mammal and Marine Bioacoustics Laboratory, Sanya Institute of Deep‐sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sanya, China;4. National Research Institute of Fisheries Engineering, Fisheries Research Agency, Ibaraki, Japan;5. Japan Science and Technology Agency, CREST, Tokyo, Japan;6. Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan |
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| Abstract: | Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China and flows into the Yangtze River. It is a traditional habitat for the endangered Yangtze finless porpoise, which has not been well investigated. To reveal the distribution of the porpoise in Poyang Lake, 12 passive acoustic surveys were conducted along 123 km of the main channel of the lake during different seasons (spring transition season, wet season, autumn transition season, and dry season) from 2008 to 2012. We counted the number of phonating porpoises encountered and calculated the detection rate (encountered individuals detected per kilometer). The median porpoise detection rates ranged from 0 to 0.65 individuals per kilometer during the different surveys. The highest median detection rate of 0.50 was detected in the autumn transition season. The seasonal shrinking of the lake during the dry season may cause a concentration of porpoises in the narrow channels and a high incidence of collisions with cargo ships and fishing boats. Conservation actions should be focused on the main channel of the lake during the dry and transition seasons. In addition, the expansion of the existing reserve to include areas with high porpoise detection rates is necessary. |
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| Keywords: | cetacean finless porpoise Yangtze River season passive acoustic survey population status distribution |
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