Species profile
Phocoena sinus
Vaquita
This is a curated published estimate, not a live census. Estimates may refer to mature individuals, wild individuals or a documented range and are not directly comparable between species.
CR · Critically Endangered — Critically Endangered — extreme risk of extinction in the wild
About this species
Vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Critically Endangered. The vaquita is the world's rarest marine mammal: fewer than ten individuals survive in a tiny corner of the Gulf of California, making it the most endangered cetacean on Earth. Its recorded population direction is decreasing, so the category needs to be read alongside continuing losses of individuals or local populations.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with marine, coastal. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. Vaquitas are shy and elusive — they avoid boats and have never been kept in captivity, so almost everything we know about them comes from acoustic monitoring and the occasional rare sighting. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
The vaquita's decline is caused almost entirely by illegal gillnets set for another endangered species, the totoaba, whose swim bladder is trafficked on black markets. The catalogue records 3 principal pressures for this profile: Bycatch in gillnets, Illegal fishing of totoaba, Tiny remaining population. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Fishery management needs enforceable limits, more selective gear, bycatch reduction and coordinated compliance across jurisdictions. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
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Stories connected to this species
Editorial context connecting this profile to climate, habitat and human activity.