Recent findings of a significant increase in the number of China's Yangtze finless porpoises, climbing to more than 1,200 or a rise of over 23 percent in the past few years, fueled renewed optimism among cetacean conservation researchers like Serres.

"The case of the Yangtze finless porpoise proves that if the Chinese authorities want to do a good job and implement a policy, they can do it," she said, adding that she believes another vulnerable species, the Chinese white dolphin, can avoid extinction.

For the past three years, as an assistant researcher at the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Serres has traveled to Guangdong and Hainan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, carrying out research and conservation work for the Chinese white dolphin.