Scientists estimate that fewer than 100 vaquita porpoise exist today, all of them in the upper Gulf of California. Aiming for a more precise tally, researchers from the United States and Mexico are preparing to travel this month to the vaquita’s habitat aboard a San Diego-based research vessel, the Ocean Starr.

“We know they are still there, but there are not very many out there,” said Barbara Taylor, a marine mammal expert with the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla. She is helping lead the two-month expedition, which launches Sept. 26 from the Baja California port of San Felipe.

Barbara Taylor, of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is the chief US scientist on the Ocean Starr research ship’s expedition to the extreme northern portion of The Gulf of California from San Diego to investigate the Vaquita, the smallest member of the porpoise family. Only about 100 remain.

The 150-foot Ocean Starr is scheduled to leave San Diego today, setting sail for the gulf with key pieces of equipment: five high-powered long-distance binoculars that will help observers spot the elusive sea mammals as they surface briefly from the gulf’s turbid waters.


In more shallow areas, the scientists are relying on acoustic detectors that will register the presence of vaquita.

The Mexican government commissioned the $3 million survey in April, when President Enrique Peña Nieto traveled to San Felipe to announce a new plan to save the vaquita, the smallest and most endangered of the world’s 128 cetaceans. Characterized by dark rings around the eyes, vaquita can grow to 5 feet and 120 pounds, but are elusive and hard to spot.

The Mexican government’s measures include the prohibition of gill net fishing in an area covering some 1,150 square miles in the upper gulf, as well as a two-year, $36 million compensation program for fishermen who are forced to give up gill nets and long hooks.

A 2014 report by the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita, an advisory group appointed by the Mexican government, identified drift gill nets as a main threat to the vaquita, as the animals become entangled in the nets and drown. Compounding the threat has been the illegal fishing in the area for the endangered totoaba fish, whose bladders are prized in China.


This will be the third comprehensive survey of the vaquita. The initial survey in 1997 counted 567 vaquita, and a subsequent survey in 2008 found the number had dropped to 245. Subsequent estimates have a continued and rapid decline.

“The Mexican government asked us to provide the most accurate and precise estimate of vaquita abundance as soon as possible,” said Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, a marine mammal expert with Mexico’s National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change and a co-leader of the expedition. The results will help adapt the government’s vaquita recovery plan, Rojas-Bracho said.