Vaquita
Phocoena sinus
The smallest porpoise in the world lives in one corner of Mexico — and fewer than a dozen are left.
The vaquita lives in a single corner of the ocean: the top of Mexico's Gulf of California, and nowhere else on Earth. It's the smallest of all the whales, dolphins and porpoises, it has dark rings round its eyes and dark lips that look like make-up, and it's the most endangered marine mammal on the planet. Its name is Spanish for little cow.
On the conservation status
Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1996. There were an estimated 567 vaquitas in 1997, and almost every one lost since then drowned in a fishing net. In 2025, scientists saw between 7 and 10, including new calves: a few more than in 2024, and no sign of the steep drops of earlier years.
- Length
- 1.2–1.5 m (4–5 ft)
- Weight
- 30–55 kg (65–120 lb)
- Lifespan
- About 20 years
- Diet
- Small fish, squid, octopus, shrimp
- Home
- Only the northern Gulf of California
- Name
- Spanish for little cow
The good stuff.
The smallest of all the whales
Line up every whale, dolphin and porpoise on Earth and the vaquita comes last. A grown-up one is about as long as a ten-year-old is tall.
It wears make-up
Dark rings round the eyes, dark patches on the lips, and a thin dark line from the chin to the flipper. No other porpoise has a face like it.
The smallest home of any marine mammal
Vaquitas live only at the northern end of the Gulf of California, most of them in an area of about 4,000 square kilometres. No other sea mammal has such a small range.
Caught in someone else's net
Nobody hunts vaquitas. They drown in gillnets set illegally for a big fish called the totoaba, whose swim bladder sells for huge sums in China. A vaquita that swims into one can't get back to the surface to breathe.
A voice no one can hear
Vaquitas find their food with clicks pitched more than six times higher than the highest note a human can hear. Scientists count them by listening for those clicks with underwater microphones.
They could still come back
Vaquitas are still having calves. One mother, known by her bent fin and nicknamed Frida after the painter Frida Kahlo, was seen with a calf in 2023, 2024 and again in 2025. Mexico has banned gillnets where they live and dropped concrete blocks on the seafloor to snag illegal nets. Keep the nets out, and the vaquita can recover.
Wait, really?
- ✦
Scientists only described the vaquita in 1958, from skulls found on a beach.
- ✦
There are just seven kinds of porpoise in the world, and the vaquita is the smallest.
- ✦
Vaquitas are shy and keep away from boats, which is part of why they're so hard to count.
What it sounds like
Clicks, and only clicks — pitched so high that no human can hear them. Scientists listen for them with underwater microphones, which is how most vaquitas are counted.
We haven't found a recording we're allowed to share yet, so for now this one is a description.
Where you might see one
You almost certainly won't, and nobody should go looking. They live only near San Felipe, at the top of the Gulf of California, and scientists see them on careful surveys.
The trouble
- Drowning in illegal gillnets set for totoaba
- The illegal trade in totoaba swim bladders
- So few left that every single loss matters
One real thing
Never buy anything made from totoaba. And if your family buys shrimp from Mexico, look for shrimp caught without gillnets — in the upper Gulf of California, those nets are what drown vaquitas.
More ways to helpYour field notes
Read about the vaquita and add it to your passport. Then show what you learned with the field check, and collect its trading card.
Your passport is saved on this device only. It's never sent anywhere.
Field check
A question about what you just read
One question from the vaquita's page. Get it right to collect its trading card. If not, you'll see the answer and where to find it, and can try another.