Vaquitas là gì

The vaquita is a small porpoise that can only be found in the Upper Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) in Mexico. The species is listed as “Critically Endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is facing imminent extinction.

The population has dropped from about 600 individuals in 1997 to fewer than 20 in 2018 and continues to decline at an alarming rate. The vaquita may only have a few months left.

The Problem: Entanglement in Fishing Nets

Vaquita become entangled and drown in gillnets set for a large species of fish, the totoaba. 

The totoaba fish are highly sought after for their swim bladders, which in China are used for questionable medicinal purposes. The dried totoaba swim bladders are so valuable that they are referred to as the “cocaine of the sea”, with prices of up to $46,000 per kg on the Chinese black market. Because of the totoaba’s large size, nets designed to catch the fish have a mesh size that is also perfect to catch vaquita. And once caught, they drown within minutes.

Gillnets pose a major threat to whales, porpoises and dolphins around the world and kill 300,000 of them every year ─ but because of the vaquita's small range and low numbers, it is particularly vulnerable.

The Mexican government has responded with a gillnet ban, a ban on night-time fishing and better controls to monitor fishing activity in the Sea of Cortez. It has also deployed its navy to assist and vowed to step up its enforcement efforts. Local and international NGOs have also been operating in the area for years to remove derelict fishing gear.

But none of the efforts to counter the threat have been able to lower the rate of decline, and vaquita continue to drown in nets. Resources for enforcement are insufficient, units deployed to fight the rampant illegal fishery often lack the authority or the means to intervene and poachers are rarely prosecuted. Investigations also revealed cases of government corruption and pointed to the involvement of criminal cartels in the tototaba trade.

The Solution: Eliminate Gillnets, Prosecute Poachers

Experts agree that the only way to save the species is to take immediate and decisive action: 

• Remove active and abandoned gillnets from the Sea of Cortez
• Step up efforts to enforce the existing gillnet ban and prosecute those that violate it to the full extent of the law.
• Provide alternatives for the local economy, in which fishing still plays a major role.

With a new president at the helm, and a new minister of environment and natural resources in charge, it is now absolutely vital to reinforce to the Mexican government that there is no time to take a break. The vaquita will join China's baiji river dolphin and go extinct while the world is watching if the Mexican government does not take its commitment to saving the vaquita seriously. It needs to act today, as the last vaquita may drown in a gillnet tomorrow.

20 Apr 2022

Illegal fishing remains the sole immediate threat to vaquitas

Recent claims have been made that a reduction in illegal gillnet fishing in the northern Gulf of California is allowing for a gradual population recovery of the vaquita, Mexico’s endemic, critically endangered porpoise. Earlier recommendations by the Vaquita Recovery Team (CIRVA—Comité Internacional para la Recuperación de la Vaquita) had stressed that the vaquita could be saved from extinction only if gillnets were banned throughout its range and fishers adopted viable vaquita-safe fishing methods. In 2020, a 12 x 24 km area where the few remaining individuals were regularly found was designated a Zero Tolerance Area (ZTA), where the gillnet ban would be strictly enforced. Recent observations, however, indicate that illegal fishing is still rampant within the ZTA: during the shrimp season in October/November 2021 (Report here), 117 pangas were documented in the ZTA – the combined length of their nets could have spanned the 24-km length of the ZTA at least five times. 30 counts of pangas within the ZTA were made from the SSCS ship that indicate daily presence of illegal fishing ( see full report in English and in Spanish). On 19 January 2022 (Report here), during totoaba season, 58 pangas were counted fishing inside the ZTA, at a time when a new accord between the Mexican Navy and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was supposed to have greatly reduced illegal fishing within the ZTA. If vaquitas are to be saved from extinction, at a minimum, the ban on gillnet fishing in the ZTA must be enforced, and current evidence indicates that this is not happening.

Documenting illegal fishing has been difficult but photographs taken during the 2019 and 2021 vaquita surveys within the ZTA (see below) show gillnets clearly visible on pangas in the launch areas and in use within the ZTA. A video of pangas  launching from downtown San Felipe, with gillnets clearly visible as the only gear in use  is provided here.

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