Baiji
The first dolphin driven to extinction by humans — and a warning that went unheeded until it was too late
No photo available for Baiji
Population
Declared functionally extinct in 2006; possibly a handful surviving, unconfirmed
Location
Yangtze River, China
Overview
The baiji was a freshwater dolphin found only in China's Yangtze River — one of the most biologically productive rivers on Earth, and one of the most heavily industrialized. A 2006 survey by an international team of scientists traveled the entire length of the Yangtze and found nothing. The baiji was declared functionally extinct — the first cetacean driven to extinction by human activity in modern times. A handful of unverified sightings since then have never been confirmed by photographic evidence. It is almost certainly gone.
Why they're at risk
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Unregulated fishing using electrofishing and rolling hooks killed baiji as bycatch throughout the late 20th century.
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The Three Gorges Dam and other massive infrastructure projects destroyed the river habitat and disrupted fish populations the baiji depended on.
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Intense industrial and commercial shipping traffic filled the river with noise that overwhelmed the baiji's echolocation — effectively blinding them in their own habitat.
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Pollution from industrial and agricultural runoff degraded water quality throughout the Yangtze system.
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Conservation action came too late — proposals for captive breeding programs were repeatedly delayed by political and funding obstacles until the population was too small to recover.
Reasons for hope
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Unverified video footage from 2007 and subsequent years has shown what may be baiji in the Yangtze — never confirmed, but never fully dismissed by Chinese researchers.
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The baiji's story became a major driver of conservation funding for the Yangtze finless porpoise, a related species still present in the river but declining rapidly — the baiji's extinction may have saved its cousin.
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China has implemented a 10-year commercial fishing ban on the Yangtze starting in 2021, removing the bycatch pressure that contributed to the baiji's decline — too late for the baiji, but potentially in time for other species.
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Environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys of the Yangtze are ongoing — a method sensitive enough to detect a species from shed skin cells or waste in the water, which could confirm or rule out any remaining individuals.