Models based on best-available information support a low inbreeding load and potential for recovery in the vaquita

In Robinson et al. ( 2022 ), we employed genomic and simulation analyses to demonstrate that the critically endangered vaquita porpoise has a reduced potential for future inbreeding depression (inbreeding load), and is therefore not doomed to extinction by deleterious genetic factors. Garcia-Dorado and Hedrick ( 2022 ) (hereafter, GD&H) critique our analysis for not sufficiently demonstrating that the vaquita has a low inbreeding load and a good chance of recovery in the absence of continued incidental mortality in fishing gillnets.