A team of ad hoc experts did an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

An angler discovered the hapless animal and reported it to the local police station. The animal’s body was hauled to an alternative site for examination.

The cause of death was thrown into considerable doubt when people came up with various speculations: commercial fishermen using electricity may have killed the female dolphin, or she might have been simply stranded, or maybe water pollution killed the creature.

A team of ad hoc experts did an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

“Such an enormous finless porpoise is rarely seen,” said Dr. Hao Yujiang with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, brimming over with grief. The preliminary examination revealed that the marine creature was an adult female, measuring about 1.65 meters in length and weighing about 70 kilograms. There were no traces of bruises but the body stunk and the creature appeared to have been dead for a couple of days.

Drawing on the evidence of the milk spilling out of her breasts, Dr. He inferred that she was either pregnant or experiencing lactation as a result of recently giving birth at the time of death.

The autopsy confirmed his second speculation. Dr. He began to worry that her infant would surely have a difficult time because of a dearth of milk.

The autopsy also found that her liver and other organs had turned black, suggesting that water pollution may be the culprit. To fully confirm this hypothesis further examinations are currently underway.

The woeful incident is the third one this year. On July 10, bridge workers on Huangshi Bridge discovered an adult female finless porpoise corpse carrying bruise wounds resulting from struggling with a grill net. On November 15, another finless porpoise got stranded on the river, touching off a flurry of efforts by the local people. Sadly, three days later, the rescued animal was found dead in the river. The postmortem examination revealed that the animal had internal damage in the liver and lungs, suggesting a lethal illness.

In the wake of these incidents the local fishery department has applied to the provincial authorities to establish a reserve to specifically protect porpoise. The local river is a natural habitat for about 1,000 finless porpoises.

(China.org.cn by He Shan, December 11, 2007)