Will the Vaquita become a ghost of the Sea of Cortez?

Just the other day, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), launched the North American Conservation Action Plan for the Vaquita. What does this mean?

The Vaquita is a small porpoise that lives in the upper Gulf of California and is on the verge of extinction. The Vaquita's decline is blamed on accidental entanglement in fishing nets. As an air-breathing mammal it gets caught in the net and drowns while trapped underwater.

The CEC is a joint organization created by Canada, Mexico and the United States to address environmental concerns in North America.

The North American Conservation Action Plan is designed to help protect the nearly-extinct Vaquita while protecting the livelihoods of the local people who depend on fishing.

In other words, if you can incentivize people to find other ways to fish and make their livelihood, you might give the Vaquita a chance to rebound.

With only 150 animals currently estimated to exist, I'm afraid that this latest -- of many efforts to save the species -- may be too late. But I haven't given up hope that one day maybe I'll see one.

Now, these are not the animals that you typically see rolling and leaping from the deck of your booze cruise; those are most likely Common or Bottlenose dolphins. Vaquitas are much smaller, and if you see one of these in the wild -- alive -- you should immediately purchase a lottery ticket.

In fact, I just found some recent photos taken of the Vaquita in the wild -- photos taken by some of the luckiest people on the planet. You can see them here at Whaletrackers.com.

Let's hope we aren't the generation that saw the last of the Vaquita.