Shedd Aquarium, Chicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo and Lincoln Park Zoo are responding to the emergency rescue needs of the vaquita porpoise – the smallest and most endangered marine mammal – through their support of an ambitious action plan aimed at saving what scientists believe to be the only 30 remaining of the species in the world. Chicago’s three species conservation leaders are among 100 accredited members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) that have contributed to a collective pledge of $1 million to support the VaquitaCPR emergency plan in addition to a pledge of up to $3 million by the Mexican government, announced Tuesday. Financial support between Chicago’s three institutions totals nearly $100,000 towards the overall $1 million pledge, in addition to intellectual and field work contributions to the plan. The decline of the vaquita porpoise is due to entanglement in gill nets set during illegal fishing for an endangered sea bass, the totoaba, to obtain its swim bladder for markets in China. In addition to devastating endangered vaquita and totoaba populations, the illegal fishing nets have also killed innumerable dolphins, sharks, turtles, and other marine creatures essential to a healthy Gulf of Mexico ecosystem and the web of life it nourishes. The rare and tiny 100-pound, 5-foot long, toothed whale only lives in the northern pocket of the Gulf of California, Mexico. Similar to, but smaller than, a dolphin the species was first discovered in 1958. To donate to the emergency VaquitaCPR project, visit www.VaquitaCPR.org.