Providing temporary shelter for disturbed Yangtze finless porpoises during waterway regulation is an attempt to go beyond in situ and ex situ conservation. Madangyuan waterway was selected to build a temporary shelter for Yangtze finless porpoise during the regulation of the waterway from Wuhan to Anqing of the Yangtze River between January 2020 and December 2021. The temporary shelter for the Yangtze finless porpoise was set up with several measures include fishing ban, enhancement and releasing, guiding navigation, etc. The monitoring results showed that the quality of the habitat of the Yangtze finless porpoise has improved. Fish abundance increased noticeably as average fish density increased from (3361.2±1991.7) ind./hm² to (12439.1±10734.5) ind./hm² in summer,and increased from (501.3±381.8) ind./hm² to (1684.4±3770.9) ind./hm² in winter. Meanwhile, transportation decreased significantly (P<0.05) from (15.3±10.6) ships per day before the temporary shelter was set up to (0.8±0.7) ships per day in flood period, and (0.4±0.5) ships per day in dry period after the temporary shelter was build. And underwater noise reduced and kept at low level ((130.6±3.7) dB re 1 μpa), which is lower than the mean underwater noise level in the mainstream of the Yangtze river, It was proof that fishing banning, enhancement and releasing, and limit the number of ships can improve the quality of the habitat of the Yangtze finless porpoise in short time. As result, the mean sightings (4.3±0.6), observed number (6) and group size (1.4±0.5) of the Yangtze finless porpoise in each surveys in low-water seasons was significantly higher than the shelter was set up before (P<0.05). However, the is no difference in high flow period before and after the shelter was set up (P>0.05). These results indicate that protective effect of the shelter on the Yangtze finless porpoise is mainly in the dry season. However, most of the Yangtze finless porpoises was observed concentrated at the inlet and outlet of the waterway. One possible reason is that the water level decreased during the dry season, which makes some waters too shallow for the Yangtze finless porpoise and that limited their utilization of the temporary shelter. Based on the integration of the upwards research, we concluded that providing temporary shelter for the Yangtze finless porpoise during waterway regulation is a feasible measure. Nevertheless, the demand for the ecological factors of the Yangtze finless porpoise should be fully considered to guarantee for the protection efficiency, or else the habitat suitability will be influenced by the key factors.