Long run to be held to save finless porpoise

An inter-provincial long run will kick off Sunday in central China's Hubei province in a bid to save the finless porpoise, an endangered freshwater species found in the Yangtze River, organizers said on Wednesday.

The long run will be held in Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai, which are all located along the Yangtze River, the longest river in Asia.

"We hope this activity will help arouse the public's awareness of protecting the finless porpoise and urge the local governments to take measures to curb pollution," said Zhang Xinqiao, an official at the World Wildlife Fund for Nature.

Rarer than China's giant panda, the finless porpoise now teeters on the brink of extinction. Recent surveys suggest that there are a mere thousand animals left, down dramatically from similar surveys conducted just six years ago. Pollution, overfishing, and intensive development on the Yangtze have all combined to push the porpoise near extinction.