Authorities in east China's Jiangxi Province uncovered three dead finless porpoises on Friday following an online post claiming five deaths in Poyang Lake.

The population of finless porpoises has dropped to less than 1,000 in China's Yangtze River region in recent years, amid intervention by human activities and worsening environment.

An online post on Friday claims that five finless porpoises were found to be dead in the Poyang Lake. As of 5 p.m., the provincial fishery department has found three rotten corpses so far but has been unable to identify their sex and cause of death.

They are still locating the other two corpses.

The government has been trying to increase the finless porpoise population by breeding in reserves. The Tian'ezhou National Nature Reserve in central China's Hubei Province has seen its finless porpoise population grow from 22 to around 60 with four to five newborns each year since 2010.