"Mexico is home to the vaquita marina, the smallest cetacean in the world. This porpoise, with well-defined eyes and lips that seem to smile all the time, is the only endemic marine mammal in our country: it inhabits a small area in the sea of Courteous and today critically threatened by a conjunction of egregious circumstances, described here by Brooke Bessesen with passion and a sense of urgency. Narrated on the ground, drawing on interviews with key agents and direct observation, this book presents the biological characteristics of Phocoena sinus, its sad condition of incidental fishing in the hands of those who seek to catch totoaba - a fish whose 'crop' reaches astronomical prices on the black market in the United States and China - the scientific and political efforts to control the decline of this species, the international collaboration to rescue it, the social conflict that has broken out in the fishing communities after the prohibition Gone out the use of gillnets. Conserving ecological wealth poses delicate ethical, economic, and technical challenges that require the participation of informed citizens; With his account of the dense fabric of science, politics and organized crime in the Gulf of California, Bessesen makes a firm call not to repeat the deplorable fate of species now extinct due to government and social inaction.

"Bessesen addresses the difficult crossroads facing the marine vaquita today by mixing the attention to detail and curiosity of the scientist with the passion of the environmentalist. It is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the complexity of efforts to protect biodiversity."
Todd L. Capson, Science

"In this intrepid detective story about conservation, marine biologist Brooke Bessesen explains how the species is about to disappear and shows why the effort to conserve the remaining vaquitas is a tortuous and uncertain challenge."
Barbara Kiser, Nature