UNESCO Keeps Mexico Vaquita Habitat on World Heritage 'In Danger' List

New Delhi, India —The UNESCO World Heritage Committee renewed its call today for urgent action to protect the critically endangered vaquita porpoise in Mexico. With merely six to eight individuals estimated remaining, the vaquita faces imminent extinction from entanglement in illegal fishing gear.

The committee agreed to retain the Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California World Heritage site — the only home to vaquita — on its List of World Heritage in Danger. In its review, the committee determined that Mexico’s recent enforcement actions to quell illegal fishing in the area were “not fully effective” in protecting the vaquita. The committee also approved a suite of corrective measures for Mexico to implement to safeguard the species.

“I appreciate the committee’s continued pressure, but it’s disheartening that Mexico still hasn’t kept its promises to protect the quickly vanishing vaquita,” said Alejandro Olivera, senior scientist and Mexico representative at the Center for Biological Diversity, who is attending the committee meeting in Delhi. “Despite a 2020 ban, lethal gillnets still plague these little porpoises’ habitat. Mexico needs to step up immediately, expand the vaquita’s protected area, and enforce the law by stopping illegal fishing.”

Under the World Heritage Convention, a site may be listed as “in danger” if “development projects” or “major public works” threaten the natural values the site was designated to protect. According to UNESCO, the aim of the list is to “inform the international community” of the situation and “encourage corrective action.”

The vaquita population has declined drastically, falling from nearly 600 in 1997 to fewer than 10 in 2024 because of entanglement in gillnets used for illegal fishing. These nets target shrimp and a variety of fish, including totoaba, an endangered species whose swim bladder is coveted in China. Despite some reduction in illegal fishing within a no-fishing zone known as the zero tolerance area (ZTA), the practice remains widespread outside this zone, posing a continuous threat to the vaquita’s survival.

The committee decided that for the “in danger” designation to be lifted, Mexico must enact the following corrective measures:

• implement sustainable fishing practices that avoid harming marine life
• demonstrate a five-year increase in the vaquita population with healthy individuals and calves
• effectively protect the area from illegal fishing
• eliminate gillnets from the Vaquita Refuge and Biosphere Reserve
• collaborate internationally to combat illegal totoaba poaching and trafficking

The committee also directed Mexico to consult with key stakeholders and submit a detailed plan of action, including timelines. Failure to adopt these measures could result in the site losing its World Heritage status.

“Mexico has failed the vaquita and totoaba by its inability to enforce its own fishing laws, allowing cartel-driven trade in totoaba swim bladders to flourish and putting the vaquita on the precipice of extinction,” said DJ Schubert, a senior wildlife biologist with the Animal Welfare Institute. “We welcome today’s decision by the World Heritage Committee and strongly encourage Mexico to urgently implement all efforts to save the vaquita.”

In response to a petition submitted in 2015 by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Animal Welfare Institute, the World Heritage Committee in 2019 placed Mexico’s Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California on the list of World Heritage sites that are in danger.

The vaquita porpoise inhabits a restricted area in the Upper Gulf of California. While gillnet fishing is prohibited in both the ZTA (the vaquita's primary habitat today) and a broader region encompassing the species’ historic range, enforcement of this ban remains inadequate.