Vaquita

The vaquita is a small porpoise found only in Mexico’s northern Gulf of California. It is the smallest living cetacean and is critically endangered, chiefly because it becomes entangled in fishing nets.

Gillnet: A fishing net that hangs vertically in the water, catching fish by their gills or bodies. Illegal gillnets set for totoaba entangle and drown vaquitas.
Cetacea: The mammalian order containing whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The vaquita is a porpoise within this group of fully aquatic mammals.
Gulf of California: A long, semi-enclosed sea between Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula and mainland Mexico. The vaquita’s entire natural range lies in this gulf’s northern waters.
Vaquita population: The number of living vaquitas, estimated through acoustic monitoring and visual surveys. Recent estimates document an exceptionally small population concentrated in a remnant refuge.
Totoaba: A large fish native to the Gulf of California, prized for its swim bladder in illegal trade. Demand for totoaba swim bladders drives the fishing that kills vaquitas.
Porpoise: A toothed cetacean in the family Phocoenidae, distinct from dolphins in several anatomical traits. The vaquita belongs to this family, whose members have spade-shaped teeth.
Kenneth S. Norris: An American marine biologist who helped establish modern research on porpoises and dolphins. Norris co-described the vaquita in 1958 from skull specimens.
Vaquita refuge: A protected area in the northern Gulf of California established to reduce threats to vaquitas. The refuge contains the species’ remaining known distribution, but illegal net fishing persists there.
VaquitaCPR: A 2017 emergency project that attempted to protect vaquitas through capture and temporary care in sea pens. The rescue effort ended after a captured vaquita showed severe stress.
Echolocation: A biological sensing process that uses reflected sound to detect objects and their locations. Vaquitas use high-frequency clicks to navigate and locate prey in turbid water.

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