The Vaquita

The vaquita—the world's smallest cetacean—displays its distinctive dark eye rings and lips, features that make it instantly recognizable. Fewer than 10 of these shy porpoises remain in the Gulf of California.

The Totoaba Connection

The vaquita's extinction is not the result of habitat loss, climate change, or pollution—though all these factors play a role. It is being killed by gillnets set illegally for another species: the totoaba fish. The totoaba is a large fish endemic to the same waters, and its swim bladder is considered a delicacy in traditional Chinese medicine, fetching prices of up to $46,000 per kilogram on the black market.

The demand is driven by criminal enterprises operating across international borders. Mexican cartels have taken over the illegal totoaba trade, using the same smuggling routes and violence that define the drug trade. Fishermen are paid handsomely to set gillnets in vaquita habitat, and the Mexican government has been unable or unwilling to stop them.

A vaquita surfaces in the turbid waters of the upper Gulf of California—the only place on Earth this species exists. Their shy nature and small population make sightings increasingly rare.

Failed Rescue Attempts

The international community has not been silent. In 2017, conservation groups attempted a desperate plan: capture the remaining vaquitas and breed them in captivity until the gillnet threat could be eliminated. The plan, called VaquitaCPR, ended in tragedy when one captured vaquita died of stress. The effort was immediately abandoned.

Mexico has banned gillnets in the vaquita refuge, deployed navy ships, and offered compensation to fishermen. None of it has worked. The nets keep going out, and the vaquitas keep dying.

Illegal gillnets set for totoaba fish—the primary cause of vaquita extinction. Despite bans and enforcement efforts, these deadly nets continue to be deployed by criminal enterprises in the Gulf of California.

A Final Warning

The vaquita is what conservation biologists call a "threshold guardian"—a species whose extinction marks a point of no return, not just for itself but for the integrity of an entire ecosystem and our capacity to prevent such losses. If we cannot save the vaquita, a species whose plight is well-documented and whose salvation requires only the enforcement of existing laws, then what species can we save?

With fewer than 10 individuals remaining, the vaquita may already be functionally extinct. Even if a few survive, the population may be too small to recover. We are witnessing, in real time, the final moments of a species that has existed for millions of years.