What is the world’s smallest cetacean?

The vaquita is the world’s smallest cetacean.

This critically endangered porpoise lives only in the northern Gulf of California, also called the Sea of Cortez. Adults generally reach about 1.5 metres in length and weigh roughly 45 kilograms, making them smaller than most dolphins and porpoises.

Vaquitas are especially vulnerable to gillnets, which are used illegally to catch totoaba. The nets can entangle and drown vaquitas even when the animals are not the intended target. Their restricted range means that local threats affect the entire species.

The vaquita is sometimes confused with a dolphin, but it is a porpoise. Its scientific name, Phocoena sinus, refers to its habitat in a gulf or inlet. Conservation groups consider it one of the world’s most endangered marine mammals.