Mexican officials and the conservation group Sea Shepherd said Monday that experts will set out on two ships to try to locate the few remaining harbors of the vaquita, the world’s most endangered marine mammal.
Mexico’s environment secretary said experts from the United States, Canada and Mexico will use binoculars, sighting devices and acoustic monitors to try to locate the small and elusive porpoises. The species cannot be caught, kept or bred in captivity.
The trip will take place from May 10 to 27 in the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of ​​Cortez, the only place where the vaquita lives. The group will travel on a Sea Shepherd boat and a Mexican boat to try and spot vaquitas; Eight of the creatures are believed to still remain.
EXPERTS DOUBT MEXICO’S COMMITMENT TO PROTECT THE ENDANGERED MARSOFA
Illegal fishing with gill nets catches and kills the vaquita. Fishermen set their nets to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China and can fetch thousands of dollars per pound (kilogram).
Sea Shepherd has been working in the Gulf alongside the Mexican Navy to discourage illegal fishing in the only area where vaquitas were last seen. The area is known as a “zero tolerance” zone and supposedly no fishing is allowed. However, illegal fishing boats are regularly seen there, and thus Mexico has not been able to stop them completely.
Pritam Singh, president of Sea Shepherd, said a combination of patrols and the Mexican Navy’s plan to sink concrete blocks with hooks to trap illegal nets has reduced the number of hours fishing boats spend in the restricted area by 79% in 2022, compared to 2022. the previous year.
Singh said “the last 18 months have been incredibly shocking and encouraging”, while noting that “the road to saving this species is long”.
The last such sighting expedition in 2021 resulted in probable sightings of between 5 and 13 vaquitas, down from the previous survey in 2019. Porpoises are so small and elusive, and they are usually seen from so far away that it is difficult to be. sure if observers are seeing a vaquita, how many they have seen or if they have seen the same animal twice.
But illegal fishing itself has hindered population estimates in the past.
According to an expert report published in 2022, both the 2019 and 2021 surveys “were hampered by the presence of many illegal gillnet fishing vessels in the water. Some areas could not be surveyed at all on some days due to the density of illegal fishing.”
Government protection efforts have been patchy at best, and often also face violent opposition from local fishermen.
The administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has largely refused to spend money to compensate fishermen to stay out of the vaquita refuge and stop using gillnets, or to monitor their presence or areas from where they are launched.
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