Too late.

Nature I was naturally very sad to hear about the probable extinction of the Yangtze River Dolphin particularly since it was one of species that the late, great Douglas Adams focused upon as being under threat in his book Last Chance To See. I was about to post some extracts by way of an obituary but Daniel from The Flying Squid blog has already done exactly that:

"The noise in the Yangtze was a major problem for the dolphins, and severely interfered with their echolocation. The dolphins' habit had always been, when they heard a boat, to make a long dive, change direction underwater, swim under the boat and surface behind it. Now, when they are under the boat, they get confused and surface too soon, right under the propellers. [...] These things had all happened very suddenly, he said. The Yangtze had remained unspoilt for millions of years, but over the last few years had changed very dramatically, and the dolphin had no habit of adaptation."

It's worth noting that the book was published over a decade ago and things were desperate then despite conservation projects. [via]