Management Suggestions:
Given our current knowledge of river dolphins, there are several management actions that can be taken for these species. However, further research to fill the gaps in our knowledge regarding river dolphins is essential for higher success in their conservation.
- Reducing fishery by-catch and entanglement of river dolphins is one of the most important actions that must be taken. This includes stricter laws, punishments and enforcement of the protection of river dolphins is greatly needed. Currently, the Amazon River Dolphin is protected by federal laws that make it illegal to kill or harass cetaceans. While these laws have helped, the enforcement of such laws in the Amazon is difficult due to issues such as understaffing and budget constraints (6). Local organizations have been successful in monitoring some areas (7). However, more research needs to be done to determine which areas have the highest fishing intensities and river dolphin fatalities. Regulation and enforcement could then be focused on those areas specifically, and thus be more successful.
- Education of the local people and raising awareness is also important, in that many people do not know the danger these species are in, or how to protect them. Education outreach is currently being employed by several foundations, and has been successful to an extent. To increase public awareness, river dolphins could be made the national animal of some of the countries in which they inhabit. For example, the Amazon River Dolphin could be made the national animal of Colombia, so that the citizens would feel more encouraged to protect it.
- In order for protected areas to be more successful, incentives must be given to the local people in order for them to be more willing to comply to the laws and regulations (6). This could be in the form of economic benefits for certain areas and villages for reducing fatalities of river dolphins, or for decreasing the amount of pollution in the rivers.
- Although captive breeding for river dolphins is not currently being employed as conservation approach, scientific research is being conducted to look at this possibility. Establishing more natural reserves and protected areas to breed river dolphins in could potentially be successful.
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| La Planta Dolphin born in captivity
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/gallery/blog.asp?id=75703
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Foundations Supporting the Conservation of River Dolphins:
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
The WWF Global River Dolphin Initiative commits to conserving the world's endangered river dolphins to help prevent their extinction. This non-profit foundation creates public awareness and supports the conservation of river dolphins. The WWF's goal for river dolphins is to prevent habitat degradation and fisheries from threatening these species. For the Ganges River Dolphin, the goal for this foundation is to reduce or eliminate the threats caused by fisheries by-catch and habitat degradation by 2012 (12).
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| (12) |
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| A WWF sign promoting the awareness of the Ganges River Dolphin www.WWF.org |
Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS)
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| (11) |
Omacha Foundation
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| http://www.omacha.org/ |
The Omacha Foundation, meaning "pink dolphin", is an NGO based in Colombia. The foundation promotes the conservation of river species and ecosystems, and employs long term efforts to protect river dolphins through education and research. Omacha is currently researching competition between river dolphins and fisheries. Specifically, they have focused on preventing the use of river dolphins as catfish bait. They have also pushed for the countries in South America to address the issues of river dolphin conservation. Currently, this foundation is lobbying for the governments of Colombia and Brazil to end the killing of river dolphins (11).
Baiji Foundation
The Baiji foundation was founded in 2004 to promote awareness and interest in river dolphins. This foundation works on research to understand the extinction of the Baiji and the degradation of the Yangtze River. They also employ outreach programmes and fundrasing to support other projects (1).
I believe this page would need further work and more information. For example, how will the government or community plan to reduce fisher in the river as some people are highly dependent on fisher as their main source of income? Also, would implanting TED-like device be really helpful and where would you ask for design&production of this device?
ReplyDeleteCute picture. More elaboration on ideas definitely needed. The captive breeding suggestion at the end of the paragraph is a separate approach than reducing by-catch and fishing of the dolphin. If you want to talk about captive breeding it should be a separate sub heading.
ReplyDeleteDid you find any primary literature on this topic? Or are you using information we've talked about in class? When you mention the possible positive effects of captive breeding a reference could be really helpful.
ReplyDeleteYou could add a lot more information to this page!
ReplyDelete