Baiji / 白鱀豚
Socialist mobility: a telling Michigan vote adds a later source-dated Yangtze cleanup mention. Gabriel Crossley says the Yangtze River / 长江 is recovering faster than expected after the fishing ban, but the baiji is probably extinct, so Yangtze Fishing Ban Recovery cannot be read as a full reversal of past ecological loss.
The baiji is the Yangtze river dolphin discussed in the China section of 186.让你笑到头掉仍不忘思考，伟大的《消逝世界漫游指南》. In the episode’s account of 《消逝世界漫游指南》, Douglas Adams / 道格拉斯·亚当斯 and Mark Carwardine / 马克·卡沃丁 contact 周开亚 at Nanjing University, then go to the Tongling protection station to attempt underwater recording, but they do not find a baiji.
The segment is especially sharp because local publicity is abundant while the animal remains absent. Baiji beer, hotels, shoes, cola, scales, receptions, and meetings become the episode’s strongest Conservation Publicity Gap case: symbolic promotion can grow around a species even when the conditions for its survival are collapsing.
Connections
- Yangtze Fishing Ban Recovery, Gabriel Crossley, and Chinese paddlefish - later Yangtze recovery and extinction-caveat branch.
- Yangtze River / 长江 and China - river and national context.
- 周开亚 / Zhou Kaiya - scientist contacted in the episode.
- 《消逝世界漫游指南》, Douglas Adams / 道格拉斯·亚当斯, and Mark Carwardine / 马克·卡沃丁 - source frame.
- Functional Extinction, Conservation Publicity Gap, and Conservation Intervention - concepts tied to the baiji story.