The shy vaquita, a small porpoise about the size of an 8 year old child, is the most endangered marine mammal in the world. Sometimes called "the panda of the sea," vaquitas are known for their distinctive dark face markings. The world's remaining vaquitas frolic in the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez. 

This print is part of a very limited edition--just 10 prints, one for each vaquita estimated to remain in the wild. That number may already be optimistic.

In psychology, scarcity deepends value. What is rare, we treasure--what vanishes, we mourn. Each of these limited impressionsis a symbol of one of the few individuals poised at the vanishing point.

The vaquita's near-extinction is not the product of malice--it is an unintended victim of individual human choices and insufficient regulation. For the vaquita, the key behavior is the use of "gillnets," which are designed to trap fish and marine mammals by their gills. Although these nets are illegal in the Sea of Cortez, where the last vaquitas live, some fishers continue to use them in the pursuit of the totoaba, a fish in the same waters which is believed to possess special properties in Chinese medicine. 

Title: Vanishing Point

Type: Limited Edition Linocut

Size: 5x7 inches, handprinted on 11x14 mulberry paper