# Vaquita — Facts, Threats & Conservation

*Phocoena sinus*

> The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is the world's rarest marine mammal, a small porpoise found only in Mexico's Gulf of California, with fewer than ten individuals remaining as of 2025 due to drowning in illegal gillnets.

**IUCN status:** Critically Endangered  ·  **WARN range:** Mexico, Gulf of California, North America

## Quick facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Adult length | 140–150 cm (4.6–4.9 ft) |
| Adult weight | 27–55 kg (60–120 lb) |
| Lifespan | ~20 years |
| Diet | Demersal fish (grunts, croakers), crustaceans, squid |
| Gestation | 10–11 months; 1 calf every 1–2 years |
| Habitat depth | Shallow water, typically 10–50 m |
| Range | Northern Upper Gulf of California, Mexico only |
| CITES status | Appendix I |

## Scientific classification
- **Kingdom:** Animalia
- **Phylum:** Chordata
- **Class:** Mammalia
- **Order:** Artiodactyla
- **Infraorder:** Cetacea
- **Family:** Phocoenidae
- **Genus:** Phocoena
- **Species:** Phocoena sinus

## Conservation status
- **Status:** Critically Endangered
- **Population:** 7–10 individuals (2025 survey)
- **Trend:** Decreasing (>99% decline since 1997)
- **Assessed:** 2022
- **CITES:** Appendix I
- Two calves confirmed in the September 2025 survey indicate the species is still reproducing; in-situ gillnet elimination is the only viable recovery pathway.

## Key facts: Vaquita
- The vaquita is the world's smallest porpoise, reaching just 1.5 m (5 ft) in length, and is found nowhere else on Earth except the northern Gulf of California.
- Fewer than ten individuals were detected in the 2025 IUCN survey, making it the rarest marine mammal alive — and possibly the rarest vertebrate of any kind.
- Vaquitas do not die from poaching directly; they drown as bycatch in illegal gillnets targeting the totoaba fish, whose prized swim bladder fuels an international black-market trade worth tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram.
- Despite the catastrophically small number, scientists confirmed two calves in the 2025 survey, proving the species is still reproducing and has not yet crossed a biological point of no return.
- Both the vaquita and the totoaba are listed on CITES Appendix I, making international trade in either species illegal — yet enforcement in the remote Upper Gulf remains deeply challenging.
- Mexican authorities have established a Zero Tolerance Area (ZTA) covering 288 km² where no vessels are permitted, patrolled by the Mexican Navy and international observers using drones and acoustic monitoring.

## What is a vaquita and what does it look like?
The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is the smallest member of the family Phocoenidae — the true porpoises — and the smallest cetacean species on the planet. Females are slightly larger than males, reaching up to 150 cm (4.9 ft) in length and weighing between 27 and 55 kg (60–120 lb). Males average around 140 cm (4.6 ft). Calves are born at roughly 70–80 cm and about 7 kg.

The vaquita's appearance is unmistakable among porpoises. Its body is pale grey on the dorsal surface, grading to white on the belly, with striking dark grey patches encircling the eyes and edging the lips — facial markings that lend it an almost spectacled appearance. The dorsal fin is tall and triangular relative to body size, unusually prominent compared to other phocoenids.

Like all porpoises, the vaquita lacks a true beak and produces high-frequency clicks for echolocation rather than the whistles used by dolphins. It is profoundly shy, consistently avoiding boats and human activity, which has made direct observation extraordinarily difficult. Most confirmed sightings have come from dedicated research vessels moving slowly and quietly through its preferred shallow, turbid waters. This evasiveness also means population surveys must rely heavily on passive acoustic monitoring — underwater microphones that detect the characteristic click trains of vaquita echolocation — combined with careful visual observation.

## Where does the vaquita live?
The vaquita occupies the smallest geographic range of any cetacean species in the world. It is found exclusively in the shallow, murky waters of the northern Upper Gulf of California — also called the Sea of Cortez — in the Mexican state of Baja California. Its total historical range encompasses roughly 4,000 square kilometres, centered on a zone of nutrient-rich, highly turbid water created by sediment from the Colorado River delta. Surviving individuals are now concentrated in a smaller area near the Rocas Consag archipelago, close to San Felipe.

Vaquitas consistently choose water depths of less than 50 metres close to shore, typically in the shallowest 10–50 m band. The species is uniquely tolerant of large annual temperature swings, from around 14°C in winter to over 30°C in summer — remarkable for a phocoenid, most of which are restricted to cool waters below 20°C. This thermal tolerance appears to be an evolutionary adaptation to the extreme seasonality of the Upper Gulf.

The Mexican government designated a Vaquita Refuge covering 1,263 km² in 2005, and in 2020 created a stricter 288 km² Zero Tolerance Area (ZTA) within it, where all vessel traffic is prohibited. A 2024 survey revealed that some individuals are now venturing beyond the ZTA into adjacent areas of the larger refuge, indicating the remaining animals use a wider swathe of habitat than previously assumed — and underscoring the urgency of expanding protection beyond the inner sanctuary.

## Why is the vaquita endangered?
The vaquita's collapse has a single, well-documented cause: entanglement in gillnets as accidental bycatch. Gillnets — walls of near-invisible mesh suspended vertically in the water column — are used extensively by local fishermen to catch shrimp, corvina, and other commercial species. When a vaquita swims into such a net, it becomes entangled and cannot surface to breathe, drowning within minutes.

The catastrophic acceleration of the decline is linked directly to the illegal market for the swim bladder of the totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), a large endangered fish that shares the vaquita's habitat. Totoaba swim bladders — known as buche — are smuggled primarily to China, where they are sold in traditional medicine markets at prices of USD 20,000 to over USD 80,000 per kilogram, rivalling or exceeding the price of gold. Criminal trafficking networks, including organised crime cartels operating in the region, deploy large gillnets specifically for totoaba during the fish's spring spawning season, placing enormous pressure on the Upper Gulf precisely at the time vaquitas are most active.

The totoaba is itself listed on CITES Appendix I alongside the vaquita, making international trade illegal — yet enforcement in the remote, underfunded Upper Gulf has proved persistently inadequate. Both animals share the same small patch of ocean; the vaquita has nowhere else to go. Modelling suggests the population declined by a cumulative 99% between 1998 and 2018 alone. Despite a Mexican government fishing ban introduced in 2015 and subsequent naval patrols, illegal gillnet activity has continued, driving numbers to their current nadir of fewer than ten individuals.

## Can the vaquita be saved from extinction?
The answer, according to the scientists closest to the problem, is a cautious yes — but only if gillnet entanglement is eliminated immediately and completely. The critical indicator is reproduction: surveys in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2025 have all confirmed the presence of calves — with two calves documented in the September 2025 survey — meaning the remaining animals are still breeding. Female vaquitas produce a calf every one to two years after a gestation of roughly ten to eleven months, and life expectancy is around twenty years. If even five or six reproductively active females survive, a slow recovery is mathematically possible, provided mortality stops.

Conservation efforts are multifaceted. Mexico's Zero Tolerance Area, established in 2020, is patrolled continuously by the Mexican Navy and international monitoring teams using acoustic arrays, drones, and long-range surveillance vessels. In March 2025, authorities seized over nine kilometres of illegal gillnets containing 72 dead totoaba in a single operation, illustrating both the scale of ongoing illegal activity and the enforcement response.

An alternative fishing-gear programme has been developed — vaquita-safe trawls and hook-and-line methods that allow local fishermen to catch corvina and shrimp without gillnets — but uptake has been uneven due to economic pressures on fishing communities.

A 2017 attempt to capture vaquitas and breed them in a temporary sanctuary ended when one individual died of capture stress, convincing scientists that ex-situ breeding is not a viable option. The only viable path is in-situ protection: making the Gulf of California safe for vaquitas to breed in the wild.

## What is the vaquita's relationship to the totoaba, and why does it matter globally?
The fate of the vaquita is inseparable from that of the totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), a massive drum fish that can reach 2 metres in length and 100 kg in weight. Like the vaquita, the totoaba is endemic to the Gulf of California and is itself Critically Endangered, listed on CITES Appendix I since 1976. The two species share overlapping habitat in the Upper Gulf, and both decline together when illegal gillnets proliferate.

The totoaba's swim bladder — a gas-filled organ used for buoyancy control — has been traded in Chinese markets for well over a century, prized in traditional medicine for purported benefits including reproductive health and longevity. As China's middle class expanded in the 2000s and 2010s, demand surged and prices soared to between USD 20,000 and USD 80,000 per kilogram or more, creating a lucrative trade route from small Mexican fishing villages through international smuggling networks to Hong Kong and mainland China. The CITES-illegal trade is estimated to have involved hundreds of millions of dollars.

This interconnection carries an important global lesson: the extinction of one charismatic megafauna species is rarely caused by a single local actor. It involves transnational criminal networks, demand from distant consumer markets, enforcement gaps across multiple jurisdictions, and the economic vulnerability of local fishing communities caught between poverty and law. The vaquita's plight has become a case study in how wildlife trade policy, fisheries management, poverty alleviation, and international diplomacy must be coordinated simultaneously. Its survival — or loss — will shape how the world responds to the next species on this same precipice.

## What WARN does
WARN does not currently run conservation projects for the vaquita, whose range is restricted to Mexico — outside WARN's in-network focus countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Brazil, and Colombia. This guide is offered as free educational content, because public awareness of critically endangered species like the vaquita strengthens the global political will that all marine conservation ultimately depends on. Understanding what drives a species to the brink — illegal wildlife trade, bycatch, and enforcement failures — informs action everywhere, including in the countries where WARN does work.

The vaquita's story shows how quickly a species can slide from thousands to single digits when illegal wildlife trade goes unchecked. Supporting WARN helps fund the education campaigns and habitat-protection work that keep other vulnerable species from reaching the same precipice.

## Frequently asked questions: Vaquita
### How many vaquitas are left in 2025?
The most recent IUCN-coordinated acoustic and visual survey, conducted in September 2025, detected between seven and ten individual vaquitas, including at least two calves. This makes the vaquita the rarest marine mammal on Earth and one of the rarest vertebrate species of any kind. The population has declined by more than 99% since the late 1990s, when approximately 567 individuals were estimated.

### Why is the vaquita going extinct?
Vaquitas are not hunted directly. They drown as unintentional bycatch in gillnets — mesh fishing nets suspended vertically in the water — set illegally to catch the totoaba fish. The totoaba's swim bladder fetches between USD 20,000 and USD 80,000 per kilogram on black markets, primarily in China, where it is used in traditional medicine. Once trapped in a gillnet, a vaquita cannot surface to breathe and suffocates within minutes. The legal fishing ban introduced by Mexico in 2015 has been difficult to enforce in the remote Upper Gulf.

### Where does the vaquita live?
The vaquita is found exclusively in the northern Upper Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) in Mexico — the smallest range of any cetacean species. It favours shallow, turbid waters of less than 50 metres depth, close to shore, influenced by sediment from the Colorado River delta. In 2024, surveys confirmed that some individuals now range beyond the government's designated Zero Tolerance Area into the broader 1,263 km² Vaquita Refuge.

### Can the vaquita recover from such a small population?
Scientists believe recovery is still biologically possible, but only if gillnet mortality is halted completely and immediately. Two calves were recorded in the September 2025 survey, confirming that the surviving animals are still reproducing. Female vaquitas can live around 20 years and produce a calf every one to two years. If a handful of reproductively active females survive and entanglement deaths cease, a very slow population increase is theoretically achievable. Captive breeding was ruled out after a vaquita died of stress during a 2017 capture attempt.

### Are vaquitas and dolphins the same thing?
No. Vaquitas are porpoises, not dolphins. While both belong to the order Cetacea, porpoises (family Phocoenidae) are a distinct group: they are generally smaller and more robust than dolphins, lack a pronounced beak, have spade-shaped teeth rather than conical ones, and communicate with high-frequency clicks rather than the broader vocal repertoire of dolphins. The vaquita is the smallest member of the porpoise family and indeed the smallest cetacean species on Earth.

### Is the vaquita protected by international law?
Yes. The vaquita is listed on CITES Appendix I, the highest level of international trade protection, meaning that any commercial trade in vaquita specimens or products is prohibited among all CITES signatory nations. It is also Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List (assessed in 2022). Within Mexico, the species is protected under federal environmental law, and a Zero Tolerance Area has been established in the Upper Gulf of California where all vessel traffic is banned.

## Sources
- [IUCN Red List — Phocoena sinus (2022 assessment)](https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/17028/50370296)
- [IUCN CSG — 2025 Vaquita Acoustic and Visual Survey Report (November 2025)](https://iucn-csg.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Report-vaquita-acoustic-and-visual-survey-2025-EN-Nov-11-clean-FINAL.pdf)
- [IUCN CSG — New Findings: Vaquitas Outside Protected Areas (2024 survey)](https://iucn-csg.org/new-findings-reveal-vaquitas-outside-protected-areas-following-may-2024-survey/)
- [Smithsonian Ocean — A History Entwined: Vaquita, Totoaba, Fishermen](https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/marine-mammals/history-entwined-vaquita-totoaba-fishermen)
- [NOAA Fisheries — Vaquita Species Profile](https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/vaquita)
- [Animal Diversity Web — Phocoena sinus](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Phocoena_sinus/)
- [CITES — Vaquita and Totoaba Fact Sheet](https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/prog/Livelihoods/case_studies/2022/CITES_&_livelihoods_fact_sheet_Vaquita_Totoaba_Mexico.pdf)
- [Mongabay — Conservation groups look for new strategies to halt vaquita decline (2025)](https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/conservation-groups-look-for-new-strategies-tech-to-halt-vaquita-decline/)

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Full guide: https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/vaquita