Quick answer
Vaquitas live only in the shallow northern Gulf of California, between Baja California and mainland Mexico. The 2025 visual survey counted animals seen in the ZTA+EA study area — not a second range. IUCN: Critically Endangered. Figures checked 13 August 2026.
Is the northern Gulf the whole map?
Yes. Phocoena sinus is endemic there. “Shallow northern Gulf of California” without saying only was the thin version of this page. No other ocean, no aquarium range, no Atlantic cousin standing in.
What water do they actually use?
Turbid, relatively shallow northern-gulf water with small fish and squid. The Zero Tolerance Area and its extension are the recent survey box, not proof they “prefer” a line on a chart. They leave that box; that is why a sighting count is not a census.
How do people shrink the map?
By setting totoaba gillnets in the last remnant. This is not a farms-and-suburbs story and not a cruise-ship corridor. Illegal gear in one gulf emptied a species that never had a second home.
What does Critically Endangered geography require?
Nets out of the water they still use. Watch from a distance if you ever see one; never feed, never chase. A 2017 captive rescue failed. A wide “Sea of Cortez” postcard is not an all-clear.
Is this the smallest marine-mammal range?
Among the smallest natural ranges of any marine mammal — one northern-gulf pocket. That is a geographic fact, not a tourism slogan. Nowhere else on Earth holds a wild vaquita.
Has the map already gone blank?
Not yet. Recent surveys still saw animals in the study area, including calves. WARN’s donate page funds wildlife-protection partners — not Gulf of California patrols.
Sources
Vaquita FAQs
Where do vaquitas live?
Only in the shallow northern Gulf of California, between Baja California and mainland Mexico — one of the smallest natural ranges of any marine mammal. They are not Atlantic harbour porpoises and not a “warm oceans worldwide” species. IUCN: Critically Endangered (2022). Figures checked 13 August 2026.
Do they live outside the Zero Tolerance Area?
They move in and out of the ZTA and Extension Area. Acoustic detections have been recorded northwest of that box. Movement is why a 2025 count of animals seen in the study area is not a total-population census. It is still one gulf, not a second country.
Have they lost range?
Yes. The historic northern-gulf map has contracted into a tiny, heavily fished remnant. A tourist pin on Cabo or the Sea of Cortez resorts is not vaquita habitat. Gillnets, not suburbs, empty this map. Acoustic detections outside the survey box are still one gulf — not a second country.
What actually protects vaquita range?
Gillnets out of the last shallow water, and an end to the totoaba swim-bladder trade that still sets those nets. A 2025 study-area count is not a range expansion. World Animal Rescue Network’s donate page funds wildlife-protection partners — not Gulf of California patrols.
Who this page is for.This page is native range and habitat, not a sighting hotline.