A Sad Countdown: Scientists Watch a Species Go Extinct

The post A Sad Countdown: Scientists Watch a Species Go Extinct appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.

Conservationists in Mexico have front-row seats as yet another species is on the verge of extinction. They can watch, but it looks as though there is little they can do to prevent it.

This time, the species in question is the vaquita porpoise. Experts believe there are only about 30 vaquita left in the warm waters of Mexico’s Gulf of California, the only area in the world where the small porpoises are known to live.

Only discovered in 1958, the vaquita 一 known as the “panda of the sea” for the darkened rings around its eyes 一 has always been a rare and enigmatic creature. A 1997 study identified roughly 600 vaquita in the Gulf of California, and by 2008, that figure had dropped to about 250. But the vaquita’s numbers have dwindled dramatically in recent years, and the species’ exponential decline can be attributed almost entirely to human activity, especially gillnetting (more on this below).

When the last of them dies, the vaquita will pass on the dubious distinction of “the world’s most endangered marine mammal” to the next species on the list.

To prevent that from happening, conservationists had been engaged in a last-ditch effort to rescue the porpoises. An international team of experts set out to identify and track any remaining vaquita, with the hope of eventually placing them in specially designed sea pens where they could be safely housed and monitored.

That was a risky prospect, especially considering that similar porpoises can’t survive in human care.

The mission was a part of VaquitaCPR, an international effort that brought together multiple nongovernmental organizations and the governments of the United States and Mexico in a final, emergency attempt to save the vaquita from the brink of extinction.

Even the US Navy got involved and contributed a group of specially trained dolphins to spot any members of the species across the Sea of Cortez. 

Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from vaquita by Paula Olsen / Wikimedia Commons