Talk:Vaquita

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Rmruizkline.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 12:15, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2018 and 7 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Pml2p. Peer reviewers: Pml2p.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 12:15, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

"With the recent functionally extinct declaration of the Baiji (Yangtze River Dolphin), it is now the world's most endangered cetacean."

Is this statement accurate? Its reference is from a 1995 publication (since which a lot could have happened), and the statement contradicts North Pacific Right Whale, of which the most recent revision currently asserts that the titular species is the most endangered marine mammal. --UberScienceNerd _{Talk Contributions} 17:48, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

I agree that a 13 year old source is not definitive on which cetacean species is currrently most endangered. In fact, based on the way the sentence is worded, I suspect that the claim is OR, based on the vaquita being listed below the baiji in book, with the conclusion being drawn that the vaquita moved up into the most endangered spot with the extinction of the baiji. I'm going to hide the claim for now. -- Donald Albury 23:12, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Please rework the "General references" section into a series of inline citations. "General references" sections such as this one can make it difficult to tell which claims are sourced and which ones are not. Chris (talk) 20:08, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

In the "Distribution and habitat" section, it says that they rarely swim deeper than 30 m, but they are most often seen at 11 to 50 m. This appears to be somewhat contradictory; if they are rarely seen below 30 m, how can they go down to 50 m so often?

Hamachisn't (talk) 04:28, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

It says they are most often found in water 11 to 50 m deep, but that doesn't necessarily mean they always dive to the bottom wherever they are found. There's really no contradiction. WolfmanSF (talk) 05:49, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Given the number of vaquitas is now close to single digits, wouldn't it be feasible to have a Sea Shepherd ship following each individual vaquita around the clock, to prevent illegal fisherboats coming near one? If the scientist can count them, they must be able to find and track them somehow... Or would this cause to much stress on the vaquitas? --Roentgenium111 (talk) 14:52, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

This is really not something for the article, unless you are aware of a reliable source about such a proposal. To answer your question, vaquitas are usually solitary, so monitoring them would require twelve or more boats on the water simultaneously all the time, which would be a large logistical operation. It would also require that each vaquita be tracked at night, in fog, in storms, etc. The number of vaquitas is not an exact count; it is almost certainly based on vaquitas being seen in different areas during some period of time, and, with luck, some identifying mark (often scars) spotted by an observer. - Donald Albury 17:04, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

The vaquitas are not necessarily being taken directly by boats, they in some cases fall prey to nets that have been left during the night (to take totoaba) and then are retrieved days later (or in some cases maybe never retrieved). Getting rid of all the nets would save them, but that is not likely unless all boat traffic and fishing activities are continuously monitored. WolfmanSF (talk) 17:50, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

I can't find information on the consequences of its extinction on any site 95.249.249.104 (talk) 10:49, 15 January 2022 (UTC)

We have to wait until reliable sources cover the subject. - Donald Albury 14:39, 15 January 2022 (UTC)

I'm not particularly fond of "In poplar culture" sections, but a graphic novel about the struggle to save the vaquita and totoaba, called The Vaquita, has been published. See the report in the Washington Post. - Donald Albury 13:14, 6 April 2022 (UTC)

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 16 January 2023 and 28 April 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Marissabasi, Dashingdolphin, Haylee h wiki (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Student973668 (talk) 02:28, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

I just went through the article removing capitalization from "vaquita" in sentences per MOS:COMMONNAMES, and saw a lot of problems with formatting, duplicate information (sometimes in three or four different places), and referencing. I fixed a few things, but there is a lot of work to do. For one thing, there are many (I lost count) "ref names" using numbers. I understand that this is an artifact of using Visual Editor to add references, but ref names using numbers are confusing, and can lead to mixups in which reference is being cited for a particular part of the content.

If there are no objections in the next week or so, I will start working at organizing the citations in this article using the Sfn template. - Donald Albury 19:22, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

Is it appropriate to have "Illegal drug trade" linked in the See Also section when totoaba swim bladder is not a drug (rather a component of TCM, or a food ingredient)? I understand there were articles where totoaba poachers refered to it as "sea cocaine", but I do not think that is relevant. It might be better to link poaching.

- Atlashrike (talk) 19:18, 21 May 2025 (UTC)

The drug cartels trade in totaba swim bladders as reported here. I seem to remember that this was noted in the article some time in the past (while the above linked news article is brand new, the story has been around for years), but I'm not sure what happened to it. If I find time in the next few days, and nobody else gets to it, I'll tuck that connection in somewhere in the article. Donald Albury 20:39, 21 May 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification! I was aware it was drug cartels trafficking the bladders (read the same article), but was unsure if that qualified as "drug trade" because while it is drug cartels doing the trading, the item itself is not a "drug" per se. An explanation would be nice.

- Atlashrike (talk) 19:30, 22 May 2025 (UTC)

as of now the vaquita species is close to extinction with only an estimated 5 individuals or less. ~2026-18407-51 (talk) 14:06, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

The "critically endangered" rating is assigned by the IUCN, and that rating was last reviewed in 2022. We do not assign ratings, and only report ratings assigned by the IUCN. As the next rating on the scale is "extinct" (since there are no members of the species in captivity), there is no reason to change the current rating. Standard practice is to wait for a few years after the last verified sighting of a member of a species in the wild before declaring it "extinct". Donald Albury 15:50, 12 May 2026 (UTC)