The welfare and conservation crisis of the vaquita — the most endangered marine mammal — with perhaps 10 or fewer individuals remaining.
The vaquita represents perhaps the most acute welfare and conservation crisis of any marine mammal. With possibly fewer than 5-10 individuals remaining, each individual death is of catastrophic significance. Gillnet entanglement causes drowning — a prolonged and terrifying death for an air-breathing cetacean. International conservation efforts have been undermined by inadequate enforcement of gillnet bans and by the extraordinary economic incentives driving totoaba poaching. The vaquita fate — extinction in real time despite global attention — illustrates the failure of conservation systems when economic incentives are sufficiently powerful and enforcement is inadequate. The welfare of the remaining individuals deserves the same moral weight as the tragedy of the population.