Vaquita
The Vaquita is a species of porpoise that lives only in the Gulf of California, a stretch of water between Baja California and Mexico. The Vaquita comes in as the world’s ninth most endangered animal with only about 500 to 600 individuals left alive. The Vaquita’s population has been declining by a rate of 15-25% a year since 1945.The greatest threat to the remaining vaquita is incidental death caused by fishing gear. Vaquita are known to die in gillnets set for sharks, rays, mackerels and chano, as well as in illegal and occasionally permitted gillnet sets for an endangered fish called totoaba. They are also killed by commercial shrimp trawlers. It is believed that about 30 vaquitas are lost to these threats each year. Because there are so few vaquita left and they are confined to such a small area, they may also be vulnerable to climate changes that change food availability or habitat conditions in