- Vaquita marina is edging closer to extinction as scientists warned Wednesday that only 30 of them are left
- Illegal fishing nets have been responsible for the killing the world’s smallest porpoise.
- At the current rate of loss, the vaquita will likely decline to extinction by 2022.
- Mexico’s vaquita marina is edging closer to extinction as scientists warned Wednesday that only 30 were left despite navy efforts to intercept illegal fishing nets killing the world’s smallest porpoise.
- Known as the “panda of the sea” because of the dark rings around its eyes, the 1.5-meter (five-foot) cetacean has rarely been seen alive.
- In a possibly last-ditch effort to save the vaquita, scientists plan, after getting government approval, to capture specimens and put them in an enclosure in the Gulf of California where they can reproduce.