The net was not for them
Updated September 2026
What bycatch is
Target catch is what the boat came for. Bycatch is everything else that hits the gear. A porpoise, a turtle, a sawfish can be the entire landing that nobody wanted and nobody can put back alive. Regulations that close a fishery, change mesh, or ban a net type are often written for that second animal, not for the fish on the ticket.
The vaquita is the photographed example on this site because the remaining animals live in a small stretch of the Upper Gulf of California, and the published threat is gillnets set for other species, including totoaba. This catalog will not invent a remaining-individual count. If a public article states one, treat it as reported, then read the assessment year.
How it shows up on a dossier
Look for a marine or freshwater animal, a small range, and a threat sentence about nets or lines. Hawksbill turtles sit in the same mechanism when they meet fishing gear, even when the better-known crisis is the shell trade. Two threats can share one badge. Do not collapse them.
What this page is not
It is not a fishing-policy brief and not a petition. It is the reason a porpoise page exists on a catalog of animals in crisis. Read the assessment for the criteria. Come back here for the word that keeps getting skipped: the net was not set for them.
Quick answers
- Is bycatch the same as hunting?
- No. Hunting targets the animal. Bycatch kills it while targeting something else.
- Why the vaquita?
- It is a photographed CR porpoise whose published threat is gillnets. Confirm the current assessment.
- Do you publish a remaining count?
- Not as our own figure. If an encyclopedia extract states one, confirm it on the Red List.