Скачать или смотреть Endangered pink river dolphins in Amazon face rising threat of mercury contamination

(16 Sep 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Puerto Nariño, Colombia - 07 September 2025
1. Various of scientists, veterinarians, and fishermen surrounding pink dolphins with a net in the Amazon River to capture them 
2. Various scientists and fishermen capturing a pink dolphin, lifting it onto a small boat and taking it away for check up
3. Various pink dolphins being lifted out of the boat for analysis
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Fernando Trujillo, Scientific Director of the Omacha Foundation:
"We are conducting health assessments on the dolphins. We are a group, a team of fishermen, veterinarians, biologists, and authorities who have gathered for five days to capture at least 10 dolphins and see what their health conditions are."
5. Various dolphins being assessed
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Fernando Trujillo, Scientific Director of the Omacha Foundation:
"Taking a dolphin out of the water is a kind of abduction. For the first time, these dolphins have been taken out of the water and placed in a terrestrial environment. For the first time, they experience the weight of their own bodies on their lungs. So we want to do this quickly, and we are monitoring that the animal is comfortable, and we return it very quickly to the river."
7. Various dolphins being evaluated, having blood drawn for analysis, and teeth checked
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Fernando Trujillo, Scientific Director of the Omacha Foundation:
"Unfortunately, we have found that 52% of pink dolphins have disappeared, and 37% of gray dolphins. This pattern of decline led a group of us to work with the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) about four years ago and classify this species as endangered. We are one step away from being critically endangered, and then comes the extinction."
9. Various of a dolphin being fitted with a tracking chip
10. Scientists weighing a dolphin
11. Various images of a dolphin being taken to the water for release after the completion of its evaluation
12. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Maria Jimena Valderrama, Veterinarian and Environmental Analyst at the Omacha Foundation:
"In the shortest time possible, we can take tissue samples, swabs for bacterial cultures, and blood samples to assess the animal's overall health. We can also check for the presence of diseases or pathogens that may be zoonotic to humans and evaluate mercury concentrations in both the blood and tissues of the animals."
13. Various scientists analyzing blood and tissue samples from dolphins
14. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jose Rangel, Former Fisherman and Worker at the Omacha Foundation:
"First and foremost, organize the net on the boat, organize the net, and then go to the beach. See where the dolphins are because you have to locate them very well to catch them, because you don't just catch them, so no, they're there, you go out and catch them. One has to have them clearly in sight and at the right distance to be able to catch them with the net."
15. Various pink dolphin skulls
16. Various of Puerto Nariño
STORYLINE:
A flash of pink breaks the muddy surface of the Amazon River as scientists and veterinarians, waist-deep in the warm current, patiently work a mesh net around a pod of river dolphins.

They draw it tighter with each pass, and a spray of silver fish glistens under the harsh sun as they leap to escape the net.

When the team hauls a dolphin into a boat, it thrashes as water streams from its pink-speckled sides and the crew quickly ferries it to the sandy riverbank where adrenaline-charged researchers lift it onto a mat.



He rests his hand gently on the animal and speaks in low tones.






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