Vaquita Porpoise on Brink of Extinction



The world’s most endangered marine mammal is on the brink of extinction, and only captivity might be able to save the vaquita porpoise, experts say.

In the last month, two more vaquitas have been found dead in gill nets in their native waters in the northern parts of the Sea of Cortez. Those deaths may seem inconsequential until you learn that scientists estimated only 30 individuals still survived in 2016. That figure was a significant drop from the estimate of 60 porpoises in 2015.

The main cause of the population decline is a high demand in the Chinese market for a swim bladder from another resident of Baja Peninsula, the totoaba fish. With a sales price of $10,000 per kilogram, the swim bladders attract poachers unconcerned with the vaquita’s plight.

A committee of scientists including researchers from the NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center and the Mexican government now believe there may be as few as two or three vaquita porpoises remaining.

With this in mind, the solution may sound drastic and dissonant to the ears of many underwater photographers: Captivity of all remaining vaquita individuals.

Or in the words of NOAA marine conservation biologist Barbara Taylor, “[Any] vaquita that’s basically not taken out of its dangerous habitat is probably going to die.”

But not all vaquita advocates are on the same page. The Sea Shepherd vaquita campaign has recovered several of the dead individuals and is actively working to remove the dangerous totoaba fishing nets.

“I don’t think by putting an animal in a cage you are saving it,” Captain Oona Layolle, of the Sea Shepherd, told the New York Times.

The shy nature of the vaquita combined with its increasing rarity makes any conservation a challenge. Performing population surveys requires high-powered binoculars to count the skittish cetaceans. The extinction of the vaquita would be the first of a marine mammal since the Yangtze River dolphin in 2006.

“We always thought that what happened in China would not happen here,” Dr. Frances Gulland, a commissioner for the Federal Marine Mammal Commision, told the Times. “We have all these experts and scientists—we have everything. We thought, ‘This won’t happen, we can fix this problem.’”

It appears the efforts might be too late.