Deteriorating Habitats and Conservation Strategies to Repopulate the Endangered Indus River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor); a Lesson Learned From the Conservation Practices of the Yangtze Finless Porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis)

Ghulam Nabi,Muhammad Shoaib Kiani,Suliman Khan,Dongming Li,Yujiang Hao,Yuefeng Wu,Richard William Mclaughlin,Naveed Ahmad,Shahid Ahmad,Saeed Ahmad

doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.561905

Abstract

The Indus River dolphin (IRD;Platanista gangetica minor) is an endangered and blind freshwater cetacean, endemic to the Indus River system of Pakistan and India. This review article provides detailed information about the major challenges IRDs are facing, and their possible consequences on the population dynamics of the IRD. Furthermore, we have suggested future conservation strategies for the IRD based on the lesson learned from the conservation of the Yangtze finless porpoise (YFP;Neophocaena asiaeorientalis), a Critically Endangered freshwater cetacean. The major challenges for IRDs are habitat degradation, habitat fragmentation, and several types of industrial and agricultural pollutants. Worsening climatic changes, illegal fishing, and overfishing are additional threats. The construction of several barrages has fragmented the population into several short segments, some of which are too small for the IRDs to survive. In some segments, the population status of the IRD is unknown. In the remaining populations, genetic inbreeding, water shortage, canal entrapment, and altered ecological environment are potent negative factors for the survival of the IRD. Conservation strategies including fishing bans, translocation, and future research (tagging, periodic health assessments, necropsy and virtopsy, understanding the reproductive biology, and genomics) are possible recommendations. Very serious conservation efforts are needed to save the IRD from decline keeping in view the water shortage, pollution, lack of health assessment studies, and habitat degradation and fragmentation.

Highlights

The primary drivers of the loss of biodiversity worldwide are habitat loss and degradation (Sala et al, 2000; Newbold et al, 2014; Arroyo-Rodríguez et al, 2017; Fink et al, 2017; Nabi et al, 2017c)
Based on the lesson learned from the conservation practices of Yangtze finless porpoise (YFP), the aims of the present article were to highlight the key threats that the Indus River dolphin (IRD) are experiencing and suggest strategies and research direction for the IRD conservation
The current conservation progress and practices are not enough, and it seems that its conservation status will be drastically compromised in the future

Summary

Introduction

The primary drivers of the loss of biodiversity worldwide are habitat loss and degradation (Sala et al, 2000; Newbold et al, 2014; Arroyo-Rodríguez et al, 2017; Fink et al, 2017; Nabi et al, 2017c). Based on the lesson learned from the conservation practices of the critically endangered freshwater cetacean, the Yangtze finless porpoise (YFP; Neophocaena asiaeorientalis), we have listed several threats, their consequences, and strategies for the conservation of IRD population (Wang, 2009, 2015). Both the IRDs and the YFPs are exposed to various anthropogenic stressors (Wang, 2009; Afzal et al, 2012; Braulik et al, 2014, 2015b). The average declining rate of YFPs was first estimated 6.06%

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion