Marine species, like the vaquita, are facing extinction in the eye. Here’s what to know and how to help.
This NATIONAL THREATENED SPECIES DAY we are shedding light on the incredible, albeit at risk, species of our planet’s OCEANS.
Despite covering 70% of the planet’s surface and being home to 94% of lifeforms, oceans remain one of the most difficult places to explore on Earth. These are places so vast (wider than the moon’s surface), so deep (11 km deep at its deepest point) and so extreme, we have been able to learn about Mars than we have about our own oceans.
And yet, human activity has had a catastrophic impact on the livelihood of Earth’s oceans. Whilst difficult to determine the exact number due to much of the ocean still being unexplored, scientists warn that without significant change, 50% of marine species may go extinct by 2100.
Today, one of the most critically endangered animals in the world is the vaquita — a pint-sized, stockily built porpoise, with bovine eyes and an endearingly curved smile, whose name in Spanish means “little cow.” They are the world’s smallest whale and are highly elusive, rarely breaking the surface of the waters they inhabit in the Gulf of California.
Sadly, only 10 mature vaquitas remain. This is due to the use of gillnets, in which vaquitas become entangled, and the illicit trade for totoaba by criminal syndicates. If we don’t act now, the world may soon lose this species forever.
Don’t wait — donate today to support organizations fighting to save our OCEANS, and precious species like the vaquita, who call them home.
