River dolphins are among the most endangered cetaceans, facing extinction from dam building and pollution.
River dolphins caught in fishing nets drown in frightening circumstances — their sophisticated echolocation makes entanglement particularly disorienting. Those living in mercury-contaminated rivers experience neurological poisoning. Dam construction fragments river habitats, trapping populations unable to migrate for breeding and food. The welfare of individual river dolphins is inseparable from the catastrophic habitat destruction threatening the entire group.