Featured Image Credit: Flip Nicklin/Minden Pictures/National Geographic Creative
By: Eva Gruber
The vaquita (Phocoena sinus), the world’s smallest porpoise, is on the thin edge of extinction directly due to human activity. Found only in the northern Gulf of Mexico, it is Mexico’s only endemic marine mammal. The most recent survey of this population revealed an unfortunate result: only 60 individual vaquitas are alive today. If we don’t immediately focus concrete effort on conserving these unique mammals, we may lose them forever – within the next five years.
The Vaquita
The smallest cetacean in the world, the vaquita is a porpoise that grows to a length of 55 inches, and a weight of 120 pounds. The only species of porpoise that lives in warm waters, they have a restricted range and are endemic to the northern Gulf of Mexico. They tend to travel alone, being less social than other members of the dolphin family. They are secretive and evasive, fleeing quickly from boats.
They spend very little time at the surface, making them hard to find and difficult to study. Vaquitas tend to stay in shallow waters near the coast, rarely venturing to depths greater than 100 feet. The vaquita has been declared to be an EDGE animal (evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered). Due to being evolutionarily distinct, it has no close relatives and represents a significant branch on the tree of life.
The Threat
Vaquitas are not directly hunted – so why are they so critically endangered? The answer is an even sadder one, entwined in the fate of another endangered species. Chinese fishermen use gillnets in targeting a fish called the totoaba. These fish are valued by the Chinese exclusively for their swim bladders, which in Eastern medicine, are believed to have magical powers of healing. A single fish’s swim bladder can fetch thousands of dollars in their superstitious markets. Formerly abundant, the totoaba’s own population is now critically endangered due to intense fishing. Despite the totoaba fishery being closed in 1975 and trade banned through CITES, poaching is driven by the huge monetary payoff – the swim bladders of these fish being more lucrative than cocaine.
The very same gillnets used to catch the totoaba, entangle and drown vaquita at an alarming rate of up to 40 a year. The simple solution would be to outlaw gillnetting outright, which Mexico, well aware of the threats, vowed to do just last year (albeit for two years). However, despite these grand plans, rampant poaching is a problem that the Mexican government has been ineffectual at addressing. With the population dropping so low, now there is an added threat from potential inbreeding depression – making the present absolutely critical in preventing further mass decline. Already this year, several vaquita have drowned in gillnets.
The Solution
It is clear that Mexico needs to step up conservation efforts if they want to prevent the extinction of an incredibly unique marine mammal. Following the tragic 2007 extinction of the Yangtze river dolphin (the first cetacean driven to extinction by humans), it’s the least we can do. The solution is simple, and the Mexican government has been present with outlines of exactly what it would take to reverse the tremendous decline.
With nets being the only threat to the vaquitas, gill nets need to be banned permanently, and there should be no loopholes for fishermen to use them. Studies on the vaquita need to be funded. Finally, these simple regulations need to be enforced within the small area that these porpoises call home. If none of these actions are taken immediately then we will be to blame for the second cetacean extinction on the planet, a tragedy.