Two vaquitas. Only ten more remain.

It has been called the ‘cocaine of the sea’. The dried swim-bladder of the totoaba fish, when smuggled from Mexico to China, sells for US$40-60,000 per kilo, thanks to its supposed medicinal qualities. While the fish is critically endangered as a result, the situation of another animal that gets caught in totoaba nets is even more dire. The illicit trade has driven the world’s smallest marine mammal — a kind of porpoise called a vaquita — to almost certain extinction. At the last count, only 12 remained alive. Continue reading →