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The 2025 survey found 7 to 10 vaquitas, and at least one calf

Every year since 2019, a small team of Mexican and international scientists has gone out into the Upper Gulf of California to find out whether the vaquita is still there. On 28 October 2025, Mexico’s protected-areas agency CONANP and its partners shared what they found this time.

Between May and September, two Sea Shepherd ships carried expert observers through the vaquita’s last stronghold, while underwater recorders listened for the porpoises’ clicks across a much wider area than in recent years. After the September cruise, the observers used a structured method called expert elicitation to agree on how many different animals they had seen. They put it at 7 to 10 vaquitas, with a 67 percent probability. In 2024 the figure was 6 to 8.

This is a count of the animals seen, so the real number could be higher. Vaquitas are very hard to spot even in good weather, and the scientists warn that the visual counts are too uncertain to call a trend. They did find no sign of the steep decline of about 45 percent a year that was measured in the last decade.

The report also has news about young animals. At least one calf was seen, and possibly two. One mother is a female called Frida, recognizable by her bent dorsal fin and named after Frida Kahlo. She had a calf in 2023 and another in 2025, roughly a year old when it was seen. Drone measurements also picked out one or two animals about 132 cm long. That length points to vaquitas born around 2022 that have survived to adolescence.

The worrying part is where they were. About 80 percent of sightings were inside the small area protected by concrete blocks with net-snagging hooks. The rest were to the north-west, in water that has no such protection. The scientists say that area needs to be protected straight away, because that is where mothers and calves could still drown in gillnets.

Seventeen young people from San Felipe also trained as observers on the ships. There won’t be a full survey in 2026, because the next observation cruise is planned for May 2027, with a Mexican team trained this spring.

Sources

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