Fewer than 30 vaquitas porpoises are left in the wild

LIVIA ALBECK-RIPKA: ‘In the past five years, the vaquita population — which lives in only a sliver of water between Mexico’s mainland and Baja California — has plummeted by 90 percent. Humans are to blame, but they are not even hunting for the vaquitas themselves. The animals, the world’s smallest porpoises, get tangled and drown in nets set illegally to catch another endangered species, a fish called the totoaba. The poachers’ bounty is an organ from the totoaba called the swim bladder, which is considered a delicacy and status symbol in China and can sell for up to $50,000 on the black market. It has been dubbed “aquatic cocaine”.’ SOURCE…

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