The recent deaths of a number of finless porpoises in two lakes linked to China's Yangtze River have raised public concerns over the endangered species, Xinhua reported. Since March 3, 10 finless porpoises have been confirmed dead in Dongting Lake, with a further six reported dead since the beginning of this year in Poyang Lake, Jiangxi Province. Autopsies showed that most of the porpoises died of starvation. A further investigation will be conducted into the cause of the so-far unexplained deaths. Figures from 2006 show there were 1,200 finless porpoises left in the Yangtze River at the time, making the species even rarer than the giant panda. The recent deaths took the mortality rate of the porpoise to between 5 to 10 percent, which experts predict will make the species functionally extinct in 15 years.