The International Whaling Commission released its first-ever extinction alert Monday to warn of the potential danger facing the critically endangered vaquita porpoise
. Known to be the smallest of porpoises and all species within the order Cetacea in terms of size, the vaquita can grow up to 5 feet long. Native and unique to the northern end of the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, the vaquita porpoise was declared critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species in 1996. Its population has dramatically decreased from about 570 to 10 in a decade, according to the IWC.
“The extinction of the vaquita is inevitable unless 100% of gillnets are substituted immediately with alternative fishing gears that protect the vaquita and the livelihoods of fishers,” the committee said in the news release. “If this doesn’t happen now, it will be too late.” Vaquitas “have surprised us all by managing to maintain a population of only around 10 animals for about five years,” IWC spokesperson Kate Wilson said via email.
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