User:Marissabasi/Vaquita

Lead
This article is about the Vaquita, Phocoena sinus that resides in the Mexico area. The critically endangered species is currently on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This is largly due to the small population size of the species and their suseptibility of being bycatch from illegal fishing. Conservation efforts throughout Mexico are in order to protect the population, but its low reproductive rate is making it especially hard to understand its potential for recovery.

Conservation
Vaquita, Phocoena sinus habits the Upper Gulf of California, Mexico area. The Vaquita has been listed as critically endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2022. The Vaquita is at risk of extinction due to its small population size. It was approximated at one point that there were 150 individuals left with a 10% annual decline within their population Anthropogenic effects of a rise in commercial fishing such as accidental bycatch, illegal fishing, and entanglement have been linked to the cause of their decline. Shrimp fishing and gillnets create entanglement issues for the Vaquita. Aspects of illegal fishing include open access fisheries and absent fisheries management has correlated towards poaching of the main prey source of the Vaquita. The also critically endangered food source of Vaquita, Totoaba macdonaldi correlates with the significant decline in the Vaquita population. The swim bladders of the Totoaba macdonaldi are being sold on the black market by cartel for profit which condemns a loss of a major food source for the Vaquita.

Protection efforts throughout Mexico have taken place in order to preserve the population. In 2017, the Government of Mexico created established it as a felony to remove endangered species. Alongside this, the Government of Mexico also made a public agreement to prohibit gillnet use. Efforts are proactive in incentive applications to fisheries in a system of trade-offs that benefit fishermen and the Vaquita.

For a small population such as the Vaquits to recover after a severe decline in population size is very difficult. This conservation status is strongly influenced in part of the species reproductive biology. The large amount of unknown surrounding the key reproductive parameters of the Vaquita makes understanding its potential for recovery even harder.