The vaquita is the smallest porpoise in the world and the most endangered marine mammal. It lives in one place only: the shallow, murky waters at the northern end of Mexico's Gulf of California. Shy and surfacing only briefly, a vaquita is marked by dark rings around its eyes and lips, as if drawn on.
Fewer than a dozen vaquitas are thought to remain, and the IUCN lists the species as Critically Endangered. They are not hunted. They drown in gillnets set illegally for the totoaba, another endangered animal whose swim bladder sells for high prices on the black market. The vaquita's survival now turns on whether those nets can be kept out of the small patch of sea it has left.
No projects have listed this species yet. If you run a project that protects the Vaquita, you can add it to Wildlife Connect.
