2023 Census give some hope for survival of Californian porpoise [pdf]

Keeping fishermen nets out of the zero tolerance area (ZTA) was critical for the stop of the decline. Observations since 2018 suggest that between 10 and 13 vaquitas still survive in the ZTA in 2023.

Acoustic data also indicate multiple groups of vaquitas detected simultaneously

Even more important, vaquitas continue to have robust calves and one or maybe two calves were detected

As the surveyed area covers only a small part of the historical distribution, other porpoises could still survive.