Do you know what the most endangered marine animal is? If you guessed the vaquita, you would be right. The vaquita, also known as panda of the sea is critically endangered. Vaquitas are endangered because of unsustainable and illegal fishing practices. Their main predators are sharks and killer whales. The vaquitas diet includes small fish, shrimp, squid and octopuses. They don’t chew their food, instead they swallow it whole.
Vaquitas are the smallest porpoise. A porpoise is a toothed whale with a rounded snout. Vaquitas weigh up to 120 pounds and they are up to 5 feet long. Vaquitas also have small, strong bodies with a rounded head and no beak. They have black, patches around their eyes and lips. They also have small spade-shaped teeth. Vaquitas have triangle shaped dorsal fins in the middle of their backs, which are taller and wider than other porpoises.
There are only 10 more known vaquitas in the whole world. Vaquitas have declined a lot. In 1997, there were 567 vaquitas. In 2008, there were 340. Then, vaquitas declined rapidly; in 2015, only 59 vaquitas remained. Sadly, in 2016, only 30 vaquitas were known. Now, we think there is only 10 more remaining today.
Vaquitas share waters with totoaba fish, also known as cocaine of the sea. The reason they are call cocaine of the sea is because the dried totoaba swim bladders are so valuable. They are referred to as the cocaine of the sea. Totoaba fish is so expensive with prices up to $46,000 per kilogram on the Chinese black market. The vaquitas get stuck in fishing nets for the totoaba fish and then they drown.
Vaquitas live for at least 21 years. Vaquitas can swim up to 10 knots or 11.5 mph. Their speed depends on the age, size, and water temperature. Like I said, there are only 10 more vaquitas remaining. There are many people trying to help. The people helping the vaquitas are VaquitaCPR (CPR for conservation, protection and recovery). VaquitaCPR is an international collaboration organization behind the efforts to create a captive breeding program. You can donate to help this endangered animal at VaquitaCPR.org. That is spelled V-A-Q-U-I-T-A C-P-R . O-R-G. Thank you for listening to my speech. I hoped you learned something about the vaquita.