Pink Dolphins, the Stuff of Myth, Get Rescue Plan

Pink Dolphins, the Stuff of Myth, Get Rescue Plan

SAO PAULO June 3, 2014 (AP)
By STAN LEHMAN Associated Press


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An extremely rare picture of the Amazon river dolphin, pink river dolphin or boto underwater in the Amazon river in Rio Negro, Brazil.

Mark Carwardine/Getty Images[/font]

Brazil will temporarily ban the catch of a type of catfish in an effort to halt the killing of the Amazon pink dolphin, whose flesh is used as bait, the Fishing and Aquaculture Ministry said Tuesday.

Ministry spokesman Ultimo Valadares said the government is working out the details of a five-year moratorium on fishing of the species called piracatinga that is expected to go into effect early next year.

"That should give us enough time to find an alternative bait for the piracatinga," Valadares said by phone.

Nivia do Campo, president of an environmental activist group in the northern jungle state of Amazonas, welcomed the news because more than 1,500 freshwater dolphins are killed annually in the Mamiraua Reserve where she studies the mammals.

She said that since 2000, when fishermen started slaughtering them for bait, the number of dolphins living on the reserve has been dropping by about 10 percent a year. The reserve currently has a population of about 13,000 dolphins.

Poor fishermen are encouraged to use dolphin flesh as bait by merchants from neighboring Colombia, a big market for that species, de Campo said.

More:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/brazil-plans-stop-killing-pink-dolphins-23980011