The northernmost tip of the Gulf of California (often times referred to as the Sea of Cortez) is home to one of the aquatic world’s most unique and rare animals. The vaquita, Spanish for “little cow” of the sea, is much like a short stockier cousin of the dolphin.  Where dolphins could be seen as having elongated bodies, the vaquita porpoise does not usually grow past four and a half feet and weighing up to 120 pounds. But other than basic facts, not much is known about the vaquita.

Since it was first discovered and recorded by science in 1958, the vaquita has maintained an elusive style sticking close to the coasts of Mexico, and just around a four hour drive from San Diego.  However, this type of behavior may be lending itself to why the animal is the now the planet’s most endangered porpoise.

Some conservationists believe that because of a lack of images of the vaquita, it is increasingly hard to earn support and sympathy for the animal.  Most snap shots that are taken do not show more than a dorsal fin or a fuzzy outline of the vaquita, making skeptics out of most of the public.  Savethewhales.org writes that due to this lack of awareness, the vaquita is considered in areas to be nothing more than a “mythical creature”—stories of it spreading further than actual hard evidence that it exists.

But even lack of popularity is not the worst of the vaquita’s problems.  In fact, it is because of an invasive human presence that the vaquita population has plummeted to a low, with an estimated less than 300 individual animals.  But even that may very well be a generous guess; others have found that “the most recent population census calculated [that] there are only 150 animals remaining.”  The threat, in this case, is gillnets.

Vaquitas, unlike other cetaceans (porpoises, whales, and dolphin), are non-migratory and stick to their coastal water, making them extremely vulnerable to fishermen sharing the same coast.  As a result, many vaquitas become victims to the method of fishing that employs the use of gillnets that are set in the water to capture large quantities of fish at a time.  “Mortality in gillnets of various mesh size has long been recognized as the most serious and immediate threat to the vaquita’s survival,” explains the International Union of Conservation for Nature (IUCN) which currently has the vaquita listed on the IUCN Red List as “critically endangered.”

Already earlier this month, the Mexican government has made progressive efforts in protecting the number of vaquitas that are left by limiting the amount of fishing vessels allowed to use the coast—“up to 64 vessels are being allowed to fish but only 21 at a given moment.”  The idea behind this move was to decrease the amount of bycatch, animals that have been unintentionally caught and killed in the nets, as well as protect the vaquitas and allow for them to breed into a more sustainable number.  “It was a slow, difficult process, but we learned that by protecting the environment and diminishing short-term ambitions, we were, in fact, preserving our livelihoods in the long run,” explains Rocky Point Mayor Alejandro Zepeda Munro, whose legislation is leading the way in positive reform.

Yet while this new action is a great turn for the benefit of vaquitas, and other marine animals, there is still more that can and should be done.  One way to help is to join in on the conversation and pressure U.S. representatives to help ban gillnets in the Gulf of California.  Sign the petition here to protect vaquitas.

Photo Credit: swfsc.noaa.gov/uploadedImages/Alejandro_%20Robles-2_small_1985.jpg