Yangtze River Dolphin Extinct - BreakAwayAdventure

As a diver and wilderness enthusiast, I've had the pleasure of witnessing first hand the beauty and diversity nature has to offer.
I've swum with bottlenose dolphins in the wild, once free diving to 70 feet and nearly drowning for having been too enthralled by
the experience to consider how long it would take me to get back to the surface. That frightening experience also counts as one of
my most precious and memorable as members of the pod turned to engage me and "poked" me with audible clicks and chirps to see
what I was. I will never see all the beauty nature has to offer in my lifetime but I certainly relish the opportunity to try. Now I learn
I've been definitively denied one such opportunity, regardless of how unlikely it might have ever been in the first place. A living
creature has been struck from the books and I will never see one in the wild. The Yangtze River dolphin has gone missing and is
presumed extinct. Cause - Boat traffic, over fishing, pollution and a bloated government unwilling or unable to effectively intervene.

According to Reuters, the last officially documented sighting was in 2002. A six week survey authorized by China involving an
international research team failed to locate any signs of the shallow water dolphins after twice reviewing the search area. A
previous survey conducted from 1997-1999 managed to only find 13 of the animals.

I have no idea how many small insects, fish, plants, birds and animals go extinct every year. With regular deforestation, coral
bleaching due to pollution and rising global temperatures, careless disposal of our waste and general human indifference, I wouldn't
be surprised at a shockingly high number. Since the turn of the century, however, 4 large animals have made the extinction list and
THAT certainly does make me stand up and take notice. Humans, in 7 short years, have earned the dubious distinction of being
responsible for the permanent removal from existence of the Yangtze River dolphin, the Western Black Rhino, the Red Colobus
Monkey and the Pyrenean Ibex.

As I read the news about the Yangtze dolphin, I envisioned what must have come before its passing. Imagine you are the last of
your kind. Imagine repeatedly traveling the length and breadth of your known world looking for a friend, a partner, a lover, a mate, a
family member and never finding one. Envision yourself trapped in a world where the conditions are life-threateningly hostile and
you are the last of your kind on the planet. Your cries go unanswered; your pleas for help, for company, for just another voice to
break the oppressive silence are unheard. Imagine the devastating loneliness, if you can, of the dawning realization that you will
never set eyes on another of your kind until the day you expire and the constant desperate hope that there's somebody out there -
just one more of you out there - who will at least keep you company until you both find your ends. Can you imagine such a thing?
Can you do it without feeling overwhelmingly sad?

With all the talk of oil, alternative fuels and energy, it's high time we stopped to recognize what we're really talking about. Obstacles
to sweeping change are far more fiscal in nature than anything else. Barriers waved like banners of opposition emphasize cost
efficiency, infrastructure development needs, unfairness to third world nations only now getting an early taste for the "benefits" of
environmental irresponsibility in exchange for modern convenience. People, it's high time we as a species stopped thinking with
our wallets. It's past time we stopped thinking only of ourselves (be that our individuality, race, culture or nationality). It is time we
started thinking with our hearts and souls because the wholesale slaughter through environmental irresponsibility of even ONE
species is unconscionable and unforgivable.

This site is about adventure and, far more often than not, adventures are enjoyed outdoors. It is the elements, nature, the raw earth
that makes these adventures worth having. A component of that is the life that surrounds us in the wilderness; the rare glimpse of
a buck or bear, the lazy flight of a circling eagle, the humbling size of a whale breaching the surface of the ocean and, yes, the
uncommon, unscripted encounter in the wild between a man and a dolphin connecting briefly on the animal's turf rather than on
ours - an experience none of us will ever again have even the slightest of opportunities of enjoying with the Yangtze River Dolphin.