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Vaquita — printable fact sheet
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Vaquita
Phocoena sinus
The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is the smallest cetacean, around 1.5 metres long, and it has the smallest range of any marine mammal, confined to a patch of the northern Gulf of California only a few thousand square kilometres in extent. It was not described until 1958. Today it is…
Did you know?
- There are estimated to be fewer than 10 vaquitas left in the wild as of 2024, making them perilously close to extinction.
- The vaquita's entire world range is a corner of one gulf, the smallest range of any marine mammal. It has dark rings around the eyes and dark lips that give it a permanently made-up look, and no other porpoise has them. Genetic analysis in 2022 showed that its tiny population is not a genetic dead end, and that if the gillnets stopped it could recover. It has never been hunted or eaten; it is dying purely as bycatch in nets set for a fish nobody eats either, prized only for its dried swim bladder.
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