---
title: "Library"
canonical: https://vaquita.mx/library
updated: 2026-10-16T18:27:32Z
source: Generated from vaquita.mx
---

# Library

The research, reports, laws and news this site cites about the vaquita and the Upper Gulf of California.

Topics: Population & surveys, Acoustic monitoring, Gillnets & bycatch, Totoaba trade, Policy & enforcement, Habitat & ecosystem, Conservation efforts.

- [Report of the 13th Meeting of CIRVA, the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita](https://vaquita.mx/library/cirva-13-2026.md) — International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA), CIRVA, hosted by the IUCN SSC Cetacean Specialist Group (iucn-csg.org), 2026. Report. CIRVA held two virtual meetings, on 27 February and 10 March 2026, to give scientific advice on Mexico's proposed changes to the 2020 fisheries agreement for the Upper Gulf of California.
- [Vaquita Research Campaign 2025: Report of the September Vaquita Survey](https://vaquita.mx/library/vaquita-survey-2025.md) — Cárdenas-Hinojosa and co-authors, CONANP, 2025. Report. In September 2025, scientists aboard two Sea Shepherd ships searched the northern Gulf of California for vaquitas, using underwater microphones at 66 sites to decide where to look.
- [Reporte del crucero de observación de la vaquita 2024](https://vaquita.mx/library/conanp-crucero-2024.md) — Cárdenas-Hinojosa and co-authors, CONANP (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas), 2024. Report. This Spanish-language report covers the May 2024 vaquita survey, which searched the Zero Tolerance Area and a new Extension Area next to it from two ships.
- [First ever Extinction Alert from the IWC: the vaquita porpoise](https://vaquita.mx/library/iwc-2023-extinction-alert.md) — International Whaling Commission, International Whaling Commission, News Archive, 2023. News article. On 7 August 2023 the International Whaling Commission issued the first Extinction Alert in its history, about the vaquita.
- [Survey report for vaquita research 2023](https://vaquita.mx/library/vaquita-survey-2023.md) — Jaramillo-Legorreta and co-authors, CONANP, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, 2023. Report. This report describes the vaquita survey of 10 to 26 May 2023, with 17 days of visual search from two ships in and around the Zero Tolerance Area.
- [More vaquita porpoises survive than expected](https://vaquita.mx/library/rojas-bracho-2022-elicitation.md) — Rojas-Bracho and co-authors, Endangered Species Research 48: 225-234, 2022. Research paper. The authors report visual surveys in the Zero Tolerance Area in 2019 and 2021 and used expert elicitation to judge how many different vaquitas had been seen.
- [Phocoena sinus, Vaquita. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T17028A214541137](https://vaquita.mx/library/iucn-red-list-2022.md) — Rojas-Bracho and co-authors, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022-1, IUCN Global Species Programme (assessment e.T17028A214541137), 2022. Report. This is the 2022 Red List assessment of the vaquita, which places the species in the Critically Endangered category under criteria A2a, C1+2a(ii), D and E.
- [The critically endangered vaquita is not doomed to extinction by inbreeding depression](https://vaquita.mx/library/robinson-2022.md) — Robinson and co-authors, Science 376(6593):635-639, 2022. Research paper. The authors sequenced whole genomes from 20 vaquitas and used them to build simulations of recovery.
- [ACUERDO por el que se regulan artes, sistemas, métodos, técnicas y horarios para la realización de actividades de pesca con embarcaciones menores y mayores en Zonas Marinas Mexicanas en el Norte del Golfo de California y se establecen sitios de desembarque, así como el uso de sistemas de monitoreo para tales embarcaciones.](https://vaquita.mx/library/dof-2020-zero-tolerance-area.md) — SADER and co-authors, Diario Oficial de la Federación, 2020. Law or regulation. This joint agreement of the agriculture, environment and navy ministries keeps the permanent gillnet ban in the same northern Gulf area as the 2017 order and extends the rules to large vessels.
- [A field effort to capture critically endangered vaquitas Phocoena sinus for protection from entanglement in illegal gillnets](https://vaquita.mx/library/rojas-bracho-2019-vaquitacpr.md) — Rojas-Bracho and co-authors, Endangered Species Research 38: 11-27, 2019. Research paper. This paper describes VaquitaCPR, the 2017 emergency attempt to catch vaquitas and hold them in protected care while illegal gillnets were still in their habitat.
- [Decline towards extinction of Mexico's vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus)](https://vaquita.mx/library/jaramillo-legorreta-2019.md) — Jaramillo-Legorreta and co-authors, Royal Society Open Science 6(7): 190598, 2019. Research paper. This paper gives the last estimate of the whole vaquita population, for 2018, about 9 animals (95% credible interval 6 to 19).
- [ACUERDO por el que se prohíben artes, sistemas, métodos, técnicas y horarios para la realización de actividades de pesca con embarcaciones menores en aguas marinas de jurisdicción federal de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos en el Norte del Golfo de California, y se establecen sitios de desembarque, así como el uso de sistemas de monitoreo para dichas embarcaciones.](https://vaquita.mx/library/dof-2017-gillnet-ban.md) — SEMARNAT and SAGARPA, Diario Oficial de la Federación, 2017. Law or regulation. This joint order of the environment and fisheries ministries permanently bans gillnets, including the large-mesh nets called agalleras, from a five-sided area of the northern Gulf of California.
- [Last call: Passive acoustic monitoring shows continued rapid decline of critically endangered vaquita](https://vaquita.mx/library/thomas-2017.md) — Thomas and co-authors, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 142(5):EL512-EL517 (JASA Express Letters), 2017. Research paper. A grid of underwater click recorders has been run in the vaquita refuge for about three months each year since 2011, and this paper reports the 2016 results.
- [Extinction is Imminent for Mexico's Endemic Porpoise Unless Fishery Bycatch is Eliminated](https://vaquita.mx/library/taylor-2016.md) — Taylor and co-authors, Conservation Letters 10(5):588-595, 2016. Research paper. The authors combined a ship-based visual line-transect survey with an array of underwater click detectors (C-PODs), run at the same time in autumn 2015, to estimate how many vaquitas were left across the species' whole range.
- [ACUERDO por el que se suspende temporalmente la pesca comercial mediante el uso de redes de enmalle, cimbras y/o palangres operadas con embarcaciones menores, en el Norte del Golfo de California.](https://vaquita.mx/library/dof-2015-gillnet-suspension.md) — SEMARNAT and SAGARPA, Diario Oficial de la Federación, 2015. Law or regulation. This joint order of the environment and fisheries ministries suspended commercial fishing with gillnets, longlines and similar gear from small boats for two years in a defined area of the northern Gulf of California.
- [A combined visual and acoustic estimate of 2008 abundance, and change in abundance since 1997, for the vaquita, Phocoena sinus](https://vaquita.mx/library/gerrodette-2011-survey.md) — Gerrodette and co-authors, Marine Mammal Science 27(2):E79-E100, 2011. Research paper. A line-transect survey in October and November 2008 combined visual searching from a large research vessel with an acoustic array towed by a sailboat in the shallowest areas.
- [Estimating the success of protected areas for the vaquita, Phocoena sinus](https://vaquita.mx/library/gerrodette-rojas-bracho-2011.md) — Gerrodette and Rojas-Bracho, Marine Mammal Science 27(2):E101-E125, 2011. Research paper. The paper fits a Bayesian population model to data on abundance, bycatch and fishing effort to estimate the chance that each of three proposed gillnet closures, set out in Mexico's 2008 conservation plan, would let the vaquita population gr…
- [Action Program for the Conservation of the Species: Vaquita (Phocoena sinus). Comprehensive Strategy for Sustainable Management of Marine and Coastal Resources in the Upper Gulf of California (PACE-Vaquita)](https://vaquita.mx/library/pace-vaquita.md) — SEMARNAT and CONANP, Government of Mexico (SEMARNAT, CONANP); English edition hosted by the IUCN SSC Cetacean Specialist Group, 2008. Report. PACE-Vaquita is Mexico's February 2008 action program for the vaquita, written for the Upper Gulf of California.
- [A new abundance estimate for vaquitas: first step for recovery](https://vaquita.mx/library/jaramillo-legorreta-1999.md) — Jaramillo-Legorreta and co-authors, Marine Mammal Science 15(4):957-973, 1999. Research paper. A three-boat line-transect survey in summer 1997 was the first designed to estimate vaquita abundance over the whole range.
- [First estimates of vaquita abundance](https://vaquita.mx/library/barlow-gerrodette-silber-1997.md) — Barlow and co-authors, Marine Mammal Science 13(1):44-55, 1997. Research paper. This paper gives the first abundance estimates for the vaquita, drawn from four boat, aerial and ship surveys carried out in Mexico between 1986 and 1993.
- [DECRETO por el que se declara área natural protegida con el carácter de Reserva de la Biosfera, la región conocida como Alto Golfo de California y Delta del Río Colorado, ubicada en aguas del Golfo de California y los municipios de Mexicali, B.C., de Puerto Peñasco y San Luis Río Colorado, Son.](https://vaquita.mx/library/dof-1993-biosphere-reserve.md) — Presidencia de la República, Diario Oficial de la Federación, 1993. Law or regulation. This presidential decree created the Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve, a protected area of 934,756 hectares around the northern tip of the Gulf.
- [Phocoena sinus: CITES listing record (Species+)](https://vaquita.mx/library/cites-appendix-i-history.md) — CITES and UNEP-WCMC, Species+ database (CITES Secretariat and UNEP-WCMC), 1979. Report. The Species+ database, run for the CITES Secretariat by UNEP-WCMC, records the vaquita (Phocoena sinus) in Appendix I of CITES, effective 28 June 1979, with no annotation or exception.
- [ACUERDO que establece veda para la especie Totoaba, Cynoscion MacDonaldi, en aguas del Golfo de California, desde la desembocadura del Río Colorado hasta el Río Fuerte, Sinaloa en la costa oriental, y del Río Colorado a Bahía Concepción, Baja California, en la costa occidental.](https://vaquita.mx/library/dof-1975-totoaba-closure.md) — Secretaría de Industria y Comercio, Diario Oficial de la Federación, 1975. Law or regulation. This Mexican fisheries order closes the fishery for totoaba, a large fish of the Gulf of California, to all fishing, commercial and sport, with no end date.