The vaquita porpoise is critically endangered with fewer than 10 individuals estimated to survive, making its welfare and conservation one of the most urgent in the world.
The vaquita crisis represents the most extreme conservation emergency for any cetacean. With fewer than 10 individuals remaining, every single animal's welfare and survival is critical to the species. Drowning in gillnets causes extreme suffering. A 2017 rescue attempt to capture vaquitas for captive breeding failed when one animal died from capture stress, leading to abandonment of that approach. Wild population protection through gillnet removal and enforcement of fishing exclusion zones is the only remaining option. International demand for totoaba swim bladders, driven by traditional Chinese medicine practices, creates the economic incentive for illegal fishing that kills vaquitas as bycatch. Conservation efforts face challenges from local fishing community economic dependence on illegal fishing.