About a year ago, I wrote a post about how the vaquita (Phocoena sinus) might be the next marine animal to go extinct, and it seems that my prediction might be coming true. Last year The International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita did a count of how many vaquitas that were still alive, and they found there to be 30 individuals left in the wild, but this year’s number is a whole lot lower.
Click here to check out the post I wrote last year.
A vaquita. Image is Public Domain, taken by Paula Olson for NOAA.
So, what exactly is a vaquita?
Before we get into the conservation talk about the vaquita, you will probably want to know what exactly is it. The vaquita is a species of porpoise (Family Phocoenidae), a type of whale that is actually looking a lot more like a dolphin than a whale. There are six different species alive, and they are found in most parts of the world.
The vaquita either lives alone or in small groups of 2-3 individuals, but they have occasionally also been seen to be in larger schools of 30 individuals (which is obviously impossible these days). They usually forage near lagoons on small fish that lives near the bottom of the lagoon. The vaquitas are only found in the norther part of the Gulf of California, and has never been reported to have been seen anywhere else.
A nice sketch to show you the size of the vaquita compared to a human. It is in fact the smallest cetacean in the world. Image by Chris_huh, posted with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
There are now only 12 vaquitas left!
Let’s return to the bad conservation news. The first count of the vaquita was in 1997. At that point the scientists counted 567 different animals, which was a lot less than expected, so conservation efforts began to take place. During a new count in 2014, there were reports of being only around 100 vaquitas left, and people began to fear that they were headed towards extinction. This turned out to be correct when the new count in 2017 put them at only 30 individuals, and the latest count from 2018 put them at only 12!
A pair. Image is Public Domain, taken by Paula Olson for NOAA.
The count was done by using sonic buoys that uses echolocation to keep track of them, and was conducted by scientist Andrea Crosta who worked with the Elephant Action League.
As you see for yourself, this sharp decline probably means that they will be extinct either this year or in 2019. With so few left, the chance of them recovering seem next to impossible.
Conservationists have spent a lot of money to try to save the species, but it simply has not worked. Both Elephant Action League and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are currently providing constant patrolling in the Gulf of Mexico in order to prevent fishing, but obviously this has not been enough to save them.
The failed breeding program
If you read my last post, then you might remember that an organization were preparing to create a breeding program in order to grow the population size. This did obviously not work at all, but was rather shut down when a vaquita died in the process of catching it for the program..
Image is Public Domain, taken by Paula Olson for NOAA.
The threats to the vaquita
I bet most of you are wondering how the vaquita got to this point, and the biggest reason is that they are often caught as bycatch. The problem is that there is a lot of illegal fishing for the totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), a fish that is sought-after by the Chinese people who uses its swim bladder for their ridiculous eastern medicine in treatments against fertility, skin problems, and circulatory problems. Just like the vaquita, the totoaba is critically endangered, and will most likely go extinct soon itself.
No one is really fishing the vaquitas themselves, but even being bycatch is enough to decimate their population, and the illegal fishing is still going, so it seems likely that the rest of them will be caught as bycatch sooner or later as well. Anyway, thanks for reading the post, and have a nice day!
Thanks for reading
The future for the vaquita is more grim than ever before, and at this point is just seems too late to even save them anymore. It really sucks, but it is what it is.
About @valth
Hey, I'm @valth - the author of this post. I love to write about nature, biology, animals, nature conservation, ecology and other related branches of science, and I occasionally write about my life, about Steem or about random stuff as well. I'm trying my best to write at least one post every day, so make sure to give me a follow if you enjoy my content and want to see more of it.
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Just makes me sad that so many species are going instinct just because man is greedy haven't thought of the environment up until now.
Just hope we from now on are capable to do some great changes so we at least can preserve what is left of mother nature
To me it also makes me very sad that, it is something regrettable and you have to find a way to do something about it
If you have any ideas, then by all means, let us know. It's extremely difficult to get people to stop their behavior when they get paid so much money for it..
Yeah, me too, @gyldenhorn!
I'm honestly a bit afraid that we are too slow to make the change. There have already been lots of species that have gone extinct, but we still keep on fishing, logging, hunting and poaching animals at the same pace as before.
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Thanks!
@valth, did they give any specific reasons for the breeding program and how it failed?? how many males are left out of the 12?
I presume it was the stress of catching them that killed them given they are pretty small in comparison to humans.
Its a shame to see another species on the brink of extinction, when will humans learn the fragile balance of mans greed and other lives.
Yes, the breeding program was immediately shut down when one of the females who was captured died. They just figured that is was not worth the risk anymore.
I have no idea of the sex ratio, unfortunately. I don't think they can even tell that from using echolocation to count them.
@valth so by that presumption if there were no males within the pod, it could already be too late.
Yep, absolutely. I believe that by being only 12 left, they are already functionally extinct.
Thank you so, so much, @valth, for posting this. A month ago I learned about this animal at one of your seal demonstrations, and made a point to visit the gift store to buy merchandise in support of this beautiful creature. But I found that it was all in the back of the store. I was surprised by this and made a point to reach out to the staff about moving the merchandise. Thank you for your efforts!
This broke my heart. The hopelessness of watching a species dissappear from this planet and there is nothing can be done about it. The more time I spend in nature the more emotional I become about things like this. And that it is because they are a bycatch somehow makes it more heartbreaking. A victim of something else entirely. Thank for sharing this important story. Despite feeling very sad after reading it the use of social media platforms to educate is so important.
Yeah, it's indeed a very sad story. The thing is that a lot of people have worked really hard to try to save it as well, but it just didn't work out this time.
They must be devestated. My heart goes out to them.
@valth after reading this post how could be it possible to have a nice day 😞😞 firstly, vaquita name is very new to me but today after this post i know how what is vaquita.truely how cruel we are how selfish just because of us 1 more species is going to extinct😞😞😞😞.567 to 100 then 30 and now only 12😞😞.@valth if breeding process is failed then there is no other substitute? maybe be there would be a way 😞😞
I'm sorry for ruining your day!
I honestly think it is way to late to do anything to save them now. They are most likely going extinct in a very short time, and even if we could stop the illegal fishing, they are just too few to be able to have a healthy population that could grow.
Such a shame indeed...
It breaks my heart...
Fuck eastern medicine...I am just angry beyond words.
12 is past the recovery point sadly.
I didn't even know there was a creature like this. This is unfortunate indeed but what can you do. We still need to put a stop to illegal fishing so that no other creature is brought so close to extinction
Yep, it's most likely too late to do anything to save them now.
Most animal species that goes extinct are actually like this - most people have never even heard about them. It's still sad that we kill them off in order to make a profit from it.
Again one more subspecies sacrificed for so called eastern Chinese medicines. Out of 30 Vaquita phocoena only 12 left. means 60% percent have been gone in an year or so Only maricle can do wonder in this situation
Yeah, it's a huge loss in only a year. There is a very high chance that there are 0 left next year..
Again humans are obvious reasons for this. I hope they are still out there in large numbers somewhere in a place where humans have no access to.
Hehe, yes, of course. It's not like there are other species who fish from boats ;)
That's a great wish, but sadly it is extremely unlikely that these guys are found anywhere else :( We have been searching for them for a long time, but never found anyone outside of the Gulf of California.
Excuse me, you said they were not being hunted but are caught as bycatch, what do you now think can be done since the breeding programme failed.
At this point there is not really anything we can do. The area has a lot of illegal fishing, and it seems very unlikely that anyone will be able to stop this fishing before all the vaquitas are dead.
I didn't know that about the Vaquita, thank you for making this situation away for us. I follow you now.
I'm glad you learned about them then :) And thanks for the follow!
your writing very interesting and your photography is so beautiful.......
Thank you. But I did not take the photos myself; see the credit below each photo for more info.
great job @valth your prediction on vaquita might be coming true, and exactly The vaquita is looking like a dolphin. Vaquita is harmful or not? @valth bye the way nice prediction and fantastic article great job keep it up Thumbs up
You really think it's a nice prediction? :O
No, the vaquita is not harmful at all.
:)
may be you knocked the wrong door @farhannaqvi7
:)
We must preserve the nature where these endangered species live, and this is the best way to save these species.
What is the best way? I don't see any way these guys could be saved at this point.
oh, it is sad news :(
we are close to losing such a beautiful fish :(
I want you to clear something,
Is it 30 species or just 30 individuals who left?
If it is 30 individuals? then it is a disaster.
I did some research and it's sadly only 30 individuals which is very sad. Because there is nothing that will bring them back unless the government bans all fishing in the area, which they can't as this affects the fishermen who aren't committing any illegal fishing acts.
Yeah, fishing should be stopped if we want them to grow.
It's too late to ban fishing at this point. 12 of them left is just to few to survive long-term.
Yeah :( sad
Unfortunately the number 30 is from last year, and there are most likely only 12 left now.
At this point it would probably not even help to ban all fishing. I mean, the illegal fishing would probably still carry on as usual anyway.
It's neither; it's 12 individuals left. It was 30 a year ago, but 12 now. Probably 0 next year..
Yeah, fishing should be stopped if we want them to grow.thanks for sharing @valth
You're welcome :)
Thanks for posting sir..for posting this. A month ago I learned about this animal at one of your seal demonstrations, and made a point to visit the gift store to buy merchandise in support of this beautiful creature. But I found that it was all in the back of the store. I was surprised by this and made a point to reach out to the staff about moving the merchandise. Thank you for your efforts! @valth
Seal demonstrations? What are you talking about?
wow very interesting post for steemit@valth. I was surprised by this and made a point to reach out to the staff about moving the merchandise. Thank you for your efforts!
What??
Excuse me, you said they were not being hunted but are caught as bycatch, what do you now think can be done since the breeding programme failed.
At this point there is not really anything we can do. The area has a lot of illegal fishing, and it seems very unlikely that anyone will be able to stop this fishing before all the vaquitas are dead.