The baiji was declared functionally extinct in 2007 — the first cetacean lost to human activity in modern times — offering painful lessons about the cost of delayed conservation action.
The baiji's extinction represents the ultimate welfare failure — the permanent loss of a sentient species capable of suffering and positive experience, whose entire lineage of welfare experiences ended with human negligence. Baiji entangled in fishing gear drowned; those struck by boats suffered traumatic injuries; those in polluted water experienced chronic physiological stress. The failure to act decisively in time eliminated not just individual welfare but the possibility of any future welfare for the species. The baiji's loss should inform urgency in current conservation and welfare interventions for remaining river dolphin species — the Ganges, Irrawaddy, and Amazon river dolphins face similar pressures with the baiji's trajectory as a warning.