World's most endangered porpoise a step nearer extinction

The latest survey to find out how many vaquitas, a type of porpoise only found in the northern part of the Gulf of California, have revealed that there may be as few as just 30 individuals left.

A survey last summer using acoustic techniques to pick up the sounds made by the porpoises discovered just half as many creatures as researchers has estimated to remain just a year earlier.

The latest finding from the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita, CIRVA) comes despite a ban on on the use of gillnets in the region and continuing efforts to combat the illegal fishing of another endangered species, the totoaba fish that lives in the same region and whose swim bladder can sell for tens of thousands of dollars in markets in Asia.