​Yangzhou University students recognized for efforts to save Yangtze finless porpoise

A wildlife conservation organization comprising students from Yangzhou University was recently named the winner of the green project category in the Mother River Award for their efforts to save Yangtze finless porpoise, an endangered species of dolphin that can only be found in the Yangtze River.

The members of the organization are from the School of Bioscience and Biotechnology at the university. They have for the past seven years studied the creature's living environment and taken measures to protect the species.

The students have visited several downstream areas along the Yangtze River, such as Yangzhou and Zhenjiang in East China's Jiangsu province, to monitor water quality and observe the creature. To date, they have recorded sightings of 602 Yangtze finless porpoises and removed over 10 metric tons of garbage along the river.

In October 2020, the School of Bioscience and Biotechnology established a laboratory with the Yangzhou Yangtze Finless Porpoise Protection Association. Wang Xuyang, a student at the school, and his team first applied the DNA alignment technology in protection of Yangtze finless porpoise.

The DNA tracing technology developed by Wang's team can be used to detect if there are Yangtze finless porpoise living within 500 meters of a place simply by examining the water there instead of fishing, which makes it an effective way to deal with endangered species.

To encourage more people to protect the Yangtze finless porpoise, the team has designed a number of courses using virtual simulation technology. The team has also conducted more than 200 lectures to nearly 500,000 people in cities including Yangzhou and Shanghai.

The team has also worked with local intangible cultural heritage inheritors to make seals and paper cuttings related to the porpoise, as well as held various activities like summer camps to promote the protection of the river dolphin.