Vaquita

Fascinating facts about the Vaquita

• The vaquita is smaller than a grand piano and weighs less than a large dog — yet it's the rarest marine mammal on Earth. Fewer than 10 individuals survive in the Gulf of California, making it statistically more endangered than the giant panda. A single fishing net can kill an entire breeding population in minutes.
• Unlike dolphins, vaquitas don't leap or play at the surface. They move like ghosts through murky lagoon water, their rounded heads barely breaking the waterline. This shyness made them invisible to science until 1958 — they weren't officially described by researchers for over 400 years after Europeans first arrived in the Gulf.
• A vaquita's skull contains a biological sonar system so precise it can detect a fish the width of a human hair from 30 metres away in total darkness. They echolocate at frequencies above 130 kilohertz — ten times higher than dolphins — a ultrasonic whisper only they and their prey can hear.
• The vaquita's extinction is happening in real time because of gillnets meant for other fish. One illegal net kills 40% of the remaining population each year. Between 1997 and 2016, the vaquita population collapsed from 567 to fewer than 50 — the fastest decline of any marine mammal ever recorded.
• In 2017, Mexico launched 'Vaquita CPR' — an attempt to capture the last few vaquitas alive and breed them in captivity to prevent total extinction. It was abandoned after a male died in capture. Now scientists debate whether the species can be saved at all, or whether vaquita extinction is inevitable.

At a glance

About the Vaquita

In the murky, sun-dappled waters of the Gulf of California, a fleeting glimpse of the vaquita's dark, sleek form is a rare and precious sight, its large, round eyes and delicate features a poignant reminder of the fragility and beauty of this most endangered of creatures. As it glides effortlessly through the waves, its porpoise-like body undulating with a gentle, almost ethereal motion, the vaquita seems a phantom of the deep, a whispered rumor of a life lived on the very brink of extinction. Its elusive nature only adds to the vaquita's mystique, a shy and enigmatic presence that haunts the coastal waters like a ghostly apparition.

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