This little porpoise needs urgent measures to prevent its extinction

January 2008 - The Vaquita, one of the world's smallest cetaceans, could be doomed to extinction, according to a study (1) recently presented at the scientific journal Conservation Biology.

According to the authors, there are only 150 Vaquitas and would be, at most, "two years to find a solution" and they add that "no more studies of abundance or estimates of bycatch are needed" if we pretend to save the species it is imperative to begin conservation work now.

The population of the Vaquita has reached this point mainly due to bycatch.

The Vaquita belongs to the family of porpoises and it is one of the cetaceans with smaller home range, being restricted to the Gulf of California.

About a year ago, the news was the Baiji (Yangtze river dolphin), since an exhaustive expedition organized to find specimens of this species had returned without success, making the species being declared extinct in the wild. The Baiji then became the first cetacean species to be declared extinct due to human activities. It is urgent then to give priority to the Vaquita now that maybe we still have time, to prevent it to follow the Baiji's footsteps.


(1) Jaramillo-Legorreta, A; Rojas-Bracho, L; Brownell Jr., RL; Read, A; Reeves, RR; Ralls, K and BL Taylor. Saving the Vaquita: Inmediate Action, Not More Data. 2007. Conservation Biology, 21 (6), 1633-1655.