Two Vaquita Calves Offer Flicker of Hope for Most Endangered Porpoises on Earth

A glimmer of hope for the world's rarest porpoise

TO Ryan Green edited by Andrea Gavrilevsky

For the first time since researchers began tracking the vaquita, the estimated number of individuals of this nearly extinct species of porpoise has increased.

The vaquitas, found only in a 4,000 square kilometer area in the upper Gulf of California, between Baja California and the Mexican mainland, have been declining since peaking at 567 in 1997; computer models show that the population may have decreased by 80 percent between 2011 and 2015. Despite predictions that they will become extinct by 2021, the vaquita persists.

New poll The population is estimated to consist of seven to ten individuals and at least one or two new hatchlings. These figures, compared with a 2024 estimate of six to eight people, reflect a glimmer of hope for what would otherwise be tragic story of decline.

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The increase provides “reason for cautious optimism,” said Catalina Lopez-Zagastegui, a marine biologist and director of the Gulf of California Marine Program at the nonprofit development organization Institute of the Americas, who was not involved in the study. “This underscores the urgency of creating the conditions necessary to improve [the vaquita’s] chances of survival.”

Historically, local shrimp fishermen have accidentally caught small porpoises in gill nets, unintentionally killing them. Vaquitas continued to be caught and unintentionally killed when fishermen used these nets to catch totoaba fish for their swim bladder—the part of the fish that regulates buoyancy—for sale on black markets in China. Although gillnets were permanently banned from the Gulf of California in 2017, they continue to be used illegally.

To combat the vaquita's decline, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species was adopted in 2019. agreement that will help eliminate supply and demand for Totoabas and help remove gillnets from the upper Gulf of California. It also established a zero-tolerance zone in the vaquita's range, in which fishing is prohibited, causing widespread outcry among members of the fishing community, who will be forced to abandon their historic fishing grounds and often lose their livelihoods.

Among the vaquitas spotted this September was an individual named Frida and her calf. The calf looked to be about a year old, which means Frida's baby had experienced the most dangerous part of its life. “This is hope in action,” says Heidi Martinez, a marine biologist with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

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