John,

Vaquitas are cute tiny porpoises that live only in the Mexican part of the Gulf of California. There are less than ten left in the wild and these shy and skittish mini-whales could be completely wiped out in just a few years, unless we act fast.

The biggest threat to vaquitas are fishing nets: they get entangled in them and die a slow, awful death by drowning. Mexico has already banned any form of fishing in parts of the vaquita habitat – but illegal fishing and lost floating nets from surrounding waters are still a huge threat. To have a chance, this tiny population needs a bigger no-tolerance-zone as protection.

The world’s governments just agreed to pour $200 billion into protecting our planet’s biodiversity – including Mexico. Let’s call on its government to permanently ban all gillnets in the entire vaquita habitat and enforce the ban rigorously, before the world’s tiniest porpoise goes extinct – add your name:

Government of Mexico: Ban gillnets and enforce the ban rigorously.

The vaquita population has plummeted by more than 98 percent over the last 25 years as the animals are caught and killed as bycatch in destructive gillnets – fishing nets that are hung up vertically in the water like a wall, trapping everything bigger than a goldfish trying to swim through it. Just 30 years ago, 560 of these mini-whales existed – today, only about 10 remain.

When Mexico banned the use of gillnets in parts of the Gulf of California back in 2017, it was a last ditch effort – and it has helped stop the species from going extinct at the last second. But the no-tolerance-zone is small, and illegal gillnet fishing is still rampant – plus, lost or discarded floating nets from surrounding waters are an additional threat to these last vaquitas.

There are plenty of alternative fishing methods, and conservationists agree that this is the last chance for the vaquita: if Mexico doesn’t expand the protected area to the species’s original range, and ban gillnet fishing completely and permanently, this beautiful little whale will be forever gone in a matter of years. Join our call now:

Government of Mexico: Ban gillnets in the entire original vaquita habitat and enforce the ban rigorously.