Chinese legend tells of a beautiful princess whose family drowned her in the Yangtze when she refused to marry a man she didn’t love. The princess was reincarnated as a baiji. The Yangtze River dolphin became a symbol of peace, love and prosperity. People called the dolphin the “Goddess of the Yangtze”.

The story of the Chinese princess was written in the 3rd century BC. At the time, an estimated 5,000 baiji lived in the Yangtze River. Today, the baiji is functionally extinct. Although there was one sighting in 2007, indicating that a few baiji may still exist, experts believe there is no hope for recovery.

Fossil records show that the baiji first appeared 25 million years ago. Twenty million years ago, the baiji began to evolve into a freshwater species, moving from the Pacific Ocean into the Yangtze River.

The baiji is a small dolphin with a long, slender bill. It feeds on fish, and grows up to 8 ft (2.4m) in size. The dolphin is almost blind. A baiji fetus has eyes on the sides of its head, but as the fetus develops, the eyes travel closer to the top of its head, to make the best use of available light from the river’s surface. The baiji navigates and finds food by echolocation, sending out a series of beeps, clicks and whistles.

Hear a SOUND CLIP of the baiji.

An astonishing twelve percent of the world’s population lives along the Yangtze, and the river churns with diesel-engine boats of all sizes. The noise of motors and machinery thrums and roars beneath the surface. Along the shores and on the river, fishermen drop nets bearing wicked hooks, competing to catch more of the dwindling supply of fish. Factories and industries dump waste and toxins into the water. Amid this murky cacophony lives the Yangtze River dolphin.

The people along the Yangtze have always known of the dolphin’s existence, but it was only in the twentieth century that the baiji came to the attention of the Western world. An American killed a baiji in Dong Ting Lake in 1914, and shipped it to the Smithsonian Institute. It generated interest, but not much.

In the late 1950’s, Professor Zhou Kai Ya of the Nanjing University discovered a mysterious, unlabeled skeleton waiting for him when he returned from a field trip. He was surprised to discover that the skeleton was of a Yangtze River dolphin, found near Nanjing. Dr. Zhou interviewed local fisherman, who confirmed many baiji sightings. The baiji often got tangled in fishing nets, and were usually sold or eaten.

At the time, the baiji numbered about 6,000 in the Yangtze River. Researchers began to study the animals, but the political climate changed with China’s Cultural Revolution, and research came to a halt. In the seventies, research picked up again, but only locally, due to communication problems within China.

In the meantime, the baiji continued to suffer. Many died when they tried to evade the ever-increasing traffic on the Yangtze. In the past, the dolphins dived beneath the boats, coming up on the other side. This worked without a problem when the boats were sail-powered. In the fifties, a massive increase in industrialization brought motors, and the noise disoriented the dolphins. They would swim into the propellers, with lethal consequences.

Since a female baiji matures at six years old, and has only one calf every two years, the dolphins couldn’t evolve fast enough to survive the changes to their environment. By 1981 only 400 baiji remained. In 1983, the government banned the hunting of the Yangtze River dolphins, but it wasn’t until 1984 that the plight of the baiji made national headlines in China.

Some peasants found a baiji stranded in shallow water near Tongling. They reported it to the Agricultural Commission of the Tongling Municipal Government. The government launched an investigation and uncovered countless horror stories of dolphins caught in nets, hacked to bits by propellers, sightings and reports of injured and dying animals. Only then did the Chinese government realize how rare the baiji had become, and how fragile was its existence.

Dr. Zhou traveled to Tongling to help save the baiji. Federal and municipal governments provided funds for research stations and studies. A research station and nature reserve went up near Tongling. The project included holding pools, a hospital for sick or injured dolphins, a fish farm to feed them, and bamboo fences to protect an area along the Yangtze.

The people of Tongling did their best to help. Businesses got into the spirit by donating to the project in return for licensing to use the baiji name and symbol. Within a short time there was Baiji Beer, a Baiji Hotel, and even Baiji toilet paper, all of which helped generate publicity for the imperiled dolphin.

D. W. Hoard/White Fin Media

It was too late.

In 1986 only 300 baiji remained. In the early 1991 the estimate went down to 200.

In Wuhan, the Institute of Hydrobiology built a baiji conservation dolphinarium in 1992. Only one baiji, a male named Qi Qi, survived captivity. He lived for over twenty-two years. In the vast, murky waters of the Yangtze, it was almost impossible to locate and catch other dolphins. Four other baiji briefly shared residence with Qi Qi, but none survived longer than eighteen months, and researchers were not successful in breeding the dolphins.

Small dams along the river affected the ecology and water quality even further. When construction began on the massive Three Gorges Hydroelectric Dam in 1994, it wreaked havoc on the baiji’s remaining habitat. In 1997, only 13 baiji remained.

Engineers finished the Three Gorges Dam in 2003, and began filling its reservoir. The last official sighting of a Yangtze River dolphin was in 2004.

In 2006, an expedition to the Yangtze searched 2,200 miles (3,500 km) of the Yangtze, and found no trace of the baiji. Scientists declared the Yangtze River dolphin functionally extinct. It was the first human-caused extinction of a dolphin species. August Pfluger, co-organizer of the expedition, said at the time, “It is a tragedy … a loss not only for China, but for the entire world.”

(above: Qi Qi, a male Yangtze River Dolphin, at the dolphinarium in Wuhan)

Then, a glimmer of hope arose. In 2007, Scientists examined digital video footage taken along the eastern part of the Yangtze, and confirmed that the animal swimming in the water was indeed a baiji.

Could the baiji, like the southern right whale and the white rhino, return from the brink of extinction? At the time, Wang Ding, a scientist at China’s Institute of Hydrobiology, said there are no guarantees. “The chances of saving the baiji are really small,” he said. “But we have to try our best to save the last baiji, even if we know it may be a mission impossible.”

After 2007, there were no further sightings. Time seems to have run out for the baiji.

Scientists are now concentrating their efforts on two other endangered species of the Yangtze River – the finless porpoise and the Chinese sturgeon.