The vaquita is the world's most critically endangered marine mammal, with fewer than 10 individuals remaining, their survival threatened almost entirely by illegal gill net fishing.
Vaquita welfare has two dimensions. Each remaining individual faces death by gill net entanglement — drowning for an air-breathing cetacean is a terrifying death by suffocation. With fewer than 10 individuals remaining, each death brings the species measurably closer to extinction. The species-level welfare tragedy is complete ecological loss: the permanent elimination of a lineage that evolved over millions of years. The failed captive rescue attempt demonstrated that intervention itself carries extreme welfare risk for vaquitas. The only viable welfare intervention is immediate, enforced elimination of all gill net fishing in the vaquita refuge. The totoaba bladder trade — driven by wealthy consumers — is directly responsible for this extinction-in-progress.