(ECNS) -- Unmanned ships and passive acoustic monitoring technologies have been used in China for the first time to monitor and investigate the population of Chinese White Dolphins that inhabit the National Nature Reserve in Pearl River Estuary of Guangdong.

"Every voice track represents a Chinese White Dolphin. We have successfully applied sonar devices and acoustic technologies to our research on population and distribution features," said ChenYuwei, an engineer with the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"We observed that Chinese White Dolphins here are mostly young. It is good to see that there are young or baby dolphins. The dolphin population is moving towards a vigorous trend," said Chen Xi, the leader of technology department with Pearl River Estuary Chinese White Dolphin National Nature Reserve.

The Chinese White Dolphin, or Sousa Chinensis, is renowned as the "panda of the ocean." It is a first-class protected animal in China.