The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is a species of porpoise endemic to the northen end of the Gulf of California. They are the smallest living cetacean. It is extremely endangerf as it is estimated than there are as few as around 10 left. They are exposed to alteration and pollution of their habitat, but mostly their decline is because of bycatch in nets set out for Totoaba fishing.
The Totoaba or Totuava (Totoaba macdonaldi) is a marine fish endemic to the Gulf of California. Once abundant it is now classed as Vulnerable by the IUCN due to human threats and illegal fishing.
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This was the last of the sketches prepared during the Vulnerable Animals Week 2023 and finally reaching completion, the prompt for the day was free and I decided to depict these two species as their conservation is strongly intertwined and the vaquita may become extinct or functionally so within the next years, the small amount of individuals left making the estabilshment of a future healthy population very difficult.
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