Nature & Environment

US Navy dolphins set to help save porpoises

By T.K. Randall
July 1, 2017

Image: Bottlenose Dolphin
Credit: NASA / (PD) Native to the northern part of the Gulf of California, this critically endangered species has been brought to the brink of extinction due to the use of illegal gillnets to catch totoaba.

The world's smallest porpoise species, vaquitas have been declining in number for years and despite extensive efforts to catch those responsible for deploying the nets, their population has continued to drop at an alarming rate to the point where there are now only around 30 individuals remaining.

Now in a last-ditch effort to save the species, the government of Mexico is deploying dolphins trained by the US Navy in the hope that they can herd the porpoises in to a nearby marine refuge."We've spent the past year working alongside the US Navy with a group of dolphins they had trained to search for missing scuba divers," said Environment Minister Rafael Pacchiano.

"We've been training them to locate the vaquitas. We have to guarantee we capture the largest possible number of vaquitas to have an opportunity to save them."

Whether it will be enough to stop the species from going extinct however remains to be seen.

Source: BBC News

Tags: Dolphin, Vaquita Porpoise