Despite our best endeavours, this female calf died in our arms while we cradled her at the water surface en route to the laboratory for treatment. A post-mortem examination showed that she was past the point of no return, no matter what we had done. She must have been harpooned several days earlier, and her hind quarters were heavily infected, such that the muscle was rotting from within. The smell of decay in this live animal was appalling. Her mother had remained beside her to the end. This pain and suffering was almost certainly inflicted by a fisherman, who may have used the calf as a lure to entice the mother within range of his harpoon. Healed scars on many animals we see indicate that such harpooning is quite common, and of course we only see the ones that got away. Present indications suggest that hundreds or thousands of botos are harpooned for fish bait every year.