Green groups hailed it as big news for a little porpoise . With just 60 animals left in the wild and the threat of extinction looming, governments had finally banded together in an effort to save the vaquita , the most endangered marine mammal on Earth .

Urgent conservation measures to protect the creature were approved at the International Whaling Commission in Slovenia late last month. The emergency resolution that the U.S. tabled included measures to permanently ban gill net fishing from the vaquitas range, remove existing gill nets and clamp down on the illegal trade of totoaba . The critically endangered fish can become captured by the nets that snare and strangle vaquita.

The IWCs approval of this range of measures to increase protection for the vaquita is a positive and vital step if we are to stand a chance of preventing the extinction of this species, said Matt Collins of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, praising the resolution.

But the struggle to save the vaquita has revealed something sobering about endangered species conservation at large: even when bold steps are undertaken to save a threatened animal, it can be dreadfully difficult to do.

Take the vaquita. Despite recent efforts to conserve the porpoise, many experts have continued to express concern at its plight.

The so-called panda of the sea is still doomed, they say. The current plan to save the vaquita just wont work .