Aquarium of the Pacific

Aquarium Event

Critically Endangered: Can Vaquita Be Saved From Extinction?

Barbara Taylor

The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is a small porpoise that inhabits the far northern Gulf of California. The vaquita became the most critically endangered marine mammal in the world when the Chinese river dolphin was deemed likely to be extinct in 2006.

With only an estimated 150 vaquita remaining, they are threatened with extinction, primarily as a result of being caught as bycatch in nets used to catch fish and shrimp. They are on the IUCN Red List as critically endangered, listed as in danger of extinction by the Mexican Official Standard, and as endangered by the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Dr. Barbara Taylor is a Supervisory Research Fish Biologist with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. She was the U.S. lead scientist on a tri-nation 2008 expedition designed to develop new acoustic monitoring methods and population estimates intended to assist Mexico in conservations efforts to save the vaquita. She will discuss the expedition results and show us the best video and photographs ever seen of this rare animal.

Taylor has been researching marine mammals for over 30 years. She works at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California and leads a group of scientists studying population structure using genetics and life history. She is a delegate to the International Whaling Commission and a member of several endangered species recovery teams and the Cetacean Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

Taylor was one of the researchers that designed the current system in the U.S. (under the Marine Mammal Protection Act) to limit the number of animals that can be accidentally killed in fishing operations. Most of her research has been in the North Pacific ranging from Alaska to the equator. She also specializes in estimating risk of extinction and has worked with some of the most endangered species. In 2006 she participated in the survey that failed to find any baiji, the Chinese river dolphin, portending the first human-caused extinction of a dolphin or whale (cetaceans). As a result, she is actively working with other conservation scientists to prevent the extinction of the vaquita, or Gulf of California porpoise in Mexico.

Want to learn more about what NOAA does? Come to "NOAA & Our Planet Day" at the Aquarium of the Pacific on November 14th from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

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