The Vaquita
There has been many species of animals that have gone extinct because of the human race. The West Black African Rhino went extinct in 2006 due to poaching. The Tasmanian tiger is another species that went extinct due to poaching, the Tasmanian tiger went extinct in 1936. Also in 2006 the Baiji White Dolphin went extinct also due to poaching and illegal fishing nets.
The Vaquita, the world’s rarest marine animal is on the edge of extinction. A vaquita is a very small porpoise that lives in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Vaquita have a beautiful color pattern on its face. It has dark rings around its eyes and lip patches that look like the application of goth makeup. Vaquita live to be 20 to 21 years-old and is about 5 feet long.
Vaquita have never been held in captivity. There has been a lot of debate about whether or not vaquita should be caught and bred in captivity. Locating and catching the vaquita in the murky waters of the gulf. To help with the hunt it has been suggested exploring the use of trained bottlenose dolphins, such as those kept by the U.S. Navy. Successfully finding the vaquita doesn't ensure that catching them would be successful. Vaquita are very sensitive to stress and noise so if the capture goes wrong it could kill the very thing they are trying to protect.
Vaquita are not purposely hunted they are caught in illegal fishing nets and are also caught by poachers trying to catch the totoaba fish whose blatter is worth a lot of money in China. One out of five vaquita get entangled and drown in nets meant for other marine species. There is more vaquita being killed then there are born. If progress isn’t made to stop illegal fishing nets and poachers the vaquita will be extinct in a few short years.
If illegal fishing nets were not used then that would cut back on the death toll of the vaquita. Another thing that would lower the death toll of the vaquita would be the end of totoaba fishing this solution would also help the totoaba fish which is another endangered species. Not only would these two solution decrease the death toll of the vaquita it would also allow the vaquita to reproduce so the species would hopefully be saved. There are only 30 vaquitas left in the world today so the end of illegal fishing nets and totoaba poachers would help to keep those last 30 vaquita alive before the whole species goes extinct.
There are many organizations that are trying to save the vaquita. For example, the World Wildlife Fund is an organization that is trying to save the vaquita. The WWF gives information about the vaquita and has a donation set up to help save the vaquita. VIVA Vaquita is another organization that is trying to save the vaquita they have donations, volunteer work, and many other ways people can get involved to help save the vaquitas. If you want to help the vaquita donate money to charities that have programs specifically for vaquitas.
