India's Ganges River Dolphins

Just recently, in New Delhi, India, endangered river dolphins in the Ganges River have gotten one step closer to winning their struggle for survival. Dolphins that live in rivers and lakes are very rare. Only four species exist in this world! There are only around 2,000 dolphins of one of these species that live in the Ganges River in India. Due to the extensive hunting and catching of these mammals over the past twenty-five years, only around 1,000 of these dolphins have survived today. Also, too much pollution is harming the population of the dolphins. I remember learning in science class that pollution can sometimes lead to the extinction of animals, especially ones that are endangered to begin with. Luckily, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) of India said that Japanese technology from researchers in the University of Tokyo has developed acoustic devices to be used to protect these dolphins. The acoustic devices that they have come up with are called hydrophones and are used underwater. They can track the vibrations of the dolphins from their clicking sounds and sonar pulses. Dolphins make these sounds to find food and shelter, just like a bat would. Since the dolphins are blind, they make their sounds and listen for the echo coming from objects to see what is in their way. I think it’s amazing how dolphins can actually do that and how scientists can make machines that can track them. Well, the makers of the hydrophones, one of them being Tamaki Ura, the head of the Underwater Technology Research Center at Tokyo University, say that the devices are completely harmless to the dolphins and won’t interrupt their lives. I am very glad to know that these hydrophones will track all of the dolphins and their every movement through the Ganges River, finding their migration routes and helping researchers in the WWF of India know what their eating habits are and how they behave. They say that this information will help them save the dolphins from their threatened state. A news conference on this whole topic had taken place on February 8, 2007, where Sandeep Behara, a representative from WWF-India’s Freshwater and Wetlands Program, had said that the acoustic devices may help save the lives of the dolphins. As for me, this is very good news, since I simply love dolphins!

All of the information from this post was found on http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/02/09/river.dolphins.reut/index.html. If you are interested in finding more information on this topic, you may visit http://www.wwfindia.org/news_facts/pres/index.cfm?uNewsID=1720.