---
title: "Reporte del crucero de observación de la vaquita 2024"
canonical: https://vaquita.mx/library/conanp-crucero-2024
updated: 2026-10-16T18:27:32Z
source: Generated from vaquita.mx
---

# Reporte del crucero de observación de la vaquita 2024

- Type: Report
- Authors: Gustavo Cárdenas-Hinojosa, Armando Jaramillo-Legorreta, Andrea Bonilla-Garzon, Edwyna Nieto-García, Barbara L. Taylor, Sarah L. Mesnick, Annette Henry, Núria Patiño Sevillano, Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, Cormac Booth and Len Thomas
- Published: 2024
- Published by: CONANP (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas)
- Language: Spanish
- Licence: Unknown
- Source: [https://www.conanp.gob.mx/vaquita\_marina/ReporteCruceroObservacionVaquita2024.pdf](https://www.conanp.gob.mx/vaquita_marina/ReporteCruceroObservacionVaquita2024.pdf)
- Page: https://vaquita.mx/library/conanp-crucero-2024
- Topics: Population & surveys, Acoustic monitoring, Habitat & ecosystem

## Summary

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. The team made 9 sightings and recorded 70 acoustic encounters. Expert elicitation gave a 75% probability that 6 to 8 different vaquitas were seen, and most likely no calf, though one animal of about a year old was seen.

## Why it matters

It is the first survey to cover the Extension Area, where half of the sightings were made. The authors say the lower count does not by itself show a population decline, because the search covered only a small part of the species' recent range.

## Key findings

- 9 sightings in 2024, against 16 in 2023, and 70 acoustic encounters, against 61 in 2023.
- Expert elicitation: a 75% probability that 6 to 8 different vaquitas were seen (mean 7.62), and a 25% probability of 9 to 11. The 2023 result was 8 to 13.
- Most likely no calf was seen (94% belief of none); one animal of about one year of age, probably born in spring 2023, was filmed by drone.
- Half of the 9 sightings were in the Extension Area outside the Zero Tolerance Area; 6 to 8 is treated as a minimum number remaining.
- Of 34 acoustic sites in the Zero Tolerance Area, 14 detectors were lost in the northwest and 5 recovered; the 3 detectors with pop-up release devices were all recovered.

## Caveats

The 6 to 8 range is a minimum count of animals seen in the survey area and is not a population estimate. The report says the lower count does not necessarily mean a decline, since vaquitas move freely outside the Zero Tolerance Area and other habitat has gone unmonitored since 2019.