Species
Vaquita
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The smallest and most endangered cetacean in the world, a porpoise found only in the far northern Gulf of California, Mexico, first described by science in 1958. It is not hunted directly; nearly every documented death is as accidental bycatch in gillnets set illegally for the totoaba, a large fish whose swim bladder is trafficked for use in traditional medicine, so the vaquita's crisis is a byproduct of another species' poaching rather than any pressure on the vaquita itself. Mexico has repeatedly banned gillnets within the vaquita's tiny range and the navy patrols a designated zero-tolerance zone, but illegal fishing has continued, and the population has fallen by an estimated order of magnitude or more within a single decade.
Facts
Disputed
Population EstimateAcoustic and visual survey estimates in the low double digits and falling; because the species is small, shy and now extremely rare, individual surveys disagree on the exact count from one year to the next and some individuals may go undetected, so no published figure is treated as a precise census, only as evidence the population is critically small. This atlas records the lower end of recently published estimates rather than implying false precision. Scientific Name Conservation StatusIUCN Red List, classified Critically Endangered continuously since 1996 (previously Vulnerable in 1978, Endangered in 1990). Fewer than 10 to 13 individuals estimated remaining as of 2024, chiefly from gillnet bycatch in illegal totoaba fishing. Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
Open Questions (1 open question)
How Many Vaquitas Remain?
The vaquita is now so rare, and lives in waters turbid enough, that acoustic monitoring (detecting echolocation clicks) and visual survey vessels give estimates that disagree year to year, and an unknown number of individuals likely go undetected by either method entirely.
What would resolve this Sustained, well-funded acoustic and visual monitoring across several consecutive seasons, combined with genetic sampling to estimate the population from DNA left in the environment, a technique already piloted for this species.
Marine mammal conservation biology and bioacousticsIUCN Red List of Threatened Species
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