Brazil News
| MANAUS, Brazil – Each year, the population of pink river dolphin (inia geoffrensis) decreases 10% due to poaching in the Amazon region, according to a new study conducted by scientists at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA).
Information provided by the Sustainable Development Reserve of Mamirauá (RDSM), 435 miles from Manaus, indicate that the cause of the population deline is due to increased killing of the dolphins for use as fishing bate. The Amzonian fishermen beleive the dolphin meat serves as the best bait for the piracatinga catfish (callophysus macropterus).
“This dolphin is native to our region and is being slaughtered for use as bait in fishing for a catfish, the piracatinga. So, we want to establish a process that results in the development of effective action to eliminate this cruel and unsustainable activity in the region,” said the coordinator of the Aquatic Mammals Laboratory (LMA), of INPA, Vera da Silva.
In order to find solutions to the problem, representatives of the LMA, the Friends of Manatee (AMPA) and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) will meet next Tuesday the 18th, at the headquarters of the INPA, in Manaus, to hold a workshop to discuss the current state of conservation of the pink dolphin.
The mythology of the river dolphin goes back time immemorial in Amazon River folklore. The native tribes believe that the dolphins by night transform into to handsome young men who seduce girls, impregnate them, and then return to the river in the morning to become dolphins again.
Read also: More Articles from Brazil Dispatch
Brazilian online news source for this article: O Globo
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