If awards were given to cetaceans, the vaquita (Phocoena sinus) would certainly win a few. Sadly, not all of them would be given for positive things...

415 million year old malformed fossils give us clues about extinction events in the ocean

Surely if a species becomes too rare, it will eventually become uneconomical to hunt - even if they are worth a lot of money....so exploitation will stop?  Not so!