The vaquita is a small porpoise found only in the northern Gulf of California, Mexico. Its rounded head and dark eye and lip patches help identify it.
It has a rounded head and no beak, with black patches around the eyes and lips. Its back is dark gray, its underside lighter gray, and its dorsal fin is triangular and set near the middle of the back.
Vaquitas live only in the northern Gulf of California, Mexico. Usually seen singly or in pairs, they avoid moving boats and eat fish, crustaceans and cephalopods.
Passive acoustic devices record high-frequency feeding clicks for long periods, including in shallow areas inaccessible to large ships. Researchers combine these data with visual surveys to follow abundance trends.
Gillnet entanglement can prevent vaquitas surfacing to breathe. Conservation priorities are ending gillnet use in their habitat, stopping illegal fishing and using acoustic monitoring to evaluate actions.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Gillnet bycatch is the main threat. Conservation focuses on eliminating gillnet use in vaquita habitat, stopping illegal fishing and monitoring changes acoustically.