The desperate race to save the vaquita
 |
| The distinguishing eye markings of the vaquita |
The race is on to save the world's smallest cetacean, the vaquita, a unique and beautiful porpoise.
Until a couple of months ago, I’d never heard of a vaquita: a beautifully elusive porpoise which is also unknown to Word since it doesn’t recognise its name. For this reason, I am shrugging off the mantle of blame for my ignorance. After all, I live in the UK - vaquitas are endemic to the Gulf of California; I live nowhere near the sea - they live in the Sea of Cortez; Word doesn’t recognise its name – I am a wordsmith, not a nautical expert with a degree in ecology and marine biology.
Until a couple of months ago, I’d never heard of a vaquita: a beautifully elusive porpoise which is also unknown to Word since it doesn’t recognise its name. For this reason, I am shrugging off the mantle of blame for my ignorance. After all, I live in the UK - vaquitas are endemic to the Gulf of California; I live nowhere near the sea - they live in the Sea of Cortez; Word doesn’t recognise its name – I am a wordsmith, not a nautical expert with a degree in ecology and marine biology.
You can’t really be surprised at most of my generation being
unaware of vaquitas either – they were only discovered in 1958. Being so rare,
it is unfortunately due to the threat of extinction that they have now swum
reluctantly into the media light.
You only need to look at a picture of a vaquita to see how
uniquely beautiful they are. A striking dark ring encircles its eye and their
elusiveness adds to their charm. Vaquitas, whose name means ‘little cow’
in Spanish, is the world’s smallest cetacean. They are relatively unstudied and
most of what we know comes, sadly, from the bodies of those washed up.
 |
| The Sea of Cortez - the only home of the vaquita |
The indiscriminate killer
The Mexican President visited the vaquita reserve, covering an areas of 11,595 kilometres in April 2015. That very month, perhaps sensing the urgency, saw the Mexican government announce a two-year ban on gill net fishing in the Sea of Cortez in an attempt to reverse the threat facing vaquitas.
Due to pressure from
conversation groups, this ban was made permanent in July 2016. Poachers were
not deterred by a night fishing ban and it is these illegal fisherman that are
now responsible for a dramatic decline in numbers of an animal we have only
known for 59 years.
In October 2015, it was estimated that there were around 30
vaquita left in the wild and so efforts to save them from imminent extinction
increased. The most significant threat to a vaquita is indiscernible gill nets.
They are frequently caught in these dangerous nets as by-catch and, unable to
breathe, quickly drown. This threat is exacerbated by the illegal fishing of
another endangered species, the totoaba. This fish is much sought after as its
swim bladder is a popular delicacy in China with medicinal benefits. So
popular, it has been nicknamed ‘aquatic cocaine’ as the widespread craze for
the bladder has increased.
This indiscriminate killer will now only be stopped by an extensive
police-style investigation to catch the murderers of this innocent mammal. It
requires support from the Mexican government to enforce the ban; the
international community to curtail the Chinese market and the UN to work with
the Mexican government to prosecute poachers and stop them exterminating all
traces of the vaquita.
“There is nothing else
we need to worry about other than gill-nets. If we remove the gill-nets, we will
likely save the vaquita.” Dr. Anna Hall, Porpoise Conservation Society.
In the last two months alone, three more vaquita have been
found dead. The most recent reported by the Environmental Investigations Agency
this week - signs of a gill net death were evident. If this statistic continues,
they will be extinct in just eighteen months.
 |
| The indiscriminate killer - the nets that cause tragic deaths |
Rising tensions
The vaquita’s
chronic demise has attracted much media attention from activists, celebrities,
experts and various politicians. The decision to ban gill nets may have stemmed
from pressure created by the media splash of this demise.
The ban also adversely
affected legal shrimp fisherman who were awarded compensation when the ban came
in. But, with this money due to run out in May of this year, they are desperate
to get back in the water again and some are willing to take risks to continue
their business in order to feed their families. Those abstaining from fishing
and adhering to the ban have had obsolete boats for almost two years and been
closely watched by police and the navy. They claim the poachers have benefited
from the ban as legal fishermen are no longer competing with them. “They
keep going and the legal fishermen can't work,"
said Jose Luis Romero Gonzalez, one such shrimp fisherman.
Other fishermen are
threatening to go to court for the right to fish and claim vaquita are not
threatened by shrimp nets. CIRVA (the
International Vaquita Recovery Commission) disagree
and claim entanglements in shrimp nets can cause further death and suffering
for a variety of marine life.
The rise in confusion
and worry has already caused clashes around the Sea of Cortez reserve with
fisherman attacking environmental inspectors in March, close to the no-fishing
zone. The Mexican fishing authorities, CONAPESCA and INAPESCA, have both been
accused of being slow to develop equipment that is vaquita-safe yet effective
for the shrimp fisherman.
It is not just the
vaquita that needs to be considered here but the fishermen who have remained
faithful to the ban and now risk threats of their own. In spite of an authoritative presence, the
ban has all but failed: poachers are still in the water and vaquita are still
dying.
Now, CIRVA have
something of an audacious solution to part of this crisis at least.
Race For Life
Along with the US Navy, they think they have the answer to
saving the vaquita. Over the coming months, the navy intends to deploy
bottlenose dolphins whose sonar will detect the remaining vaquitas. A group of
scientists, alongside the Mexican and US navy, will head out in three boats to capture
the porpoises in an effort to conserve them and keep them safe from illegal
fishing nets.
Since the 1950s, the navy have worked with highly-trained marine
mammals to find underwater objects. They successfully tracked down harbour
porpoises in San Francisco and the hope is they will be able to track the
vaquita so they can be transported to secure and safe locations. The vaquitas
will then be able breed and increase their numbers in safety until they can be
returned to the Gulf of California. However, not everyone agrees with this
divisive plan. There are concerns the controversial plan just put the few that
are left at a quicker risk of extinction.
Omar Vidal, director general for the WWF in Mexico fears the
stress of the scheme will only endanger the vaquita further: “The risk of killing
a vaquita while catching them is very high. With that potential for risk, it’s
a difficult decision to endanger the few still alive.”
With little
or no other options, it is a risk the navy and the government are willing to
take. Barack Obama and the Mexican President, Enrique Peno Nieto, discussed how to aid their survival and
despite leviathan efforts to eradicate the illegal fishing nets, this now appears
to be the only viable option left in the race to save vaquitas. During the
captures, experts and vets will monitor any changes in the mammals and the
operation will be postponed or called off if any animal appears to be in
distress.
If they don’t
manage to save them, controversial plan B will be put into action: tissue
samples taken from the vaquitas will craft resurgence in a bold, Jurassic
Park-esque style.
Barbara
Taylor, a marine mammal geneticist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and a vaquita conservationist, is not raising her hopes but felt
something needed to be done before vaquitas are “gone in a year or two”.
Against all odds
It is not surprising
that Sea Shepherd have joined the fracas as this pugnacious situation
continues. Though they are famous for their skirmishes with the Japanese
whaling boats, they are passionate about the survival of marine life and
concerned only for their welfare.
Resembling a pirate
ship, their boat, the Sam Simon, has been working in the Sea of Cortez to
conserve vaquitas. The volunteers work tirelessly to find poachers, trawl for
nets and provide information to the Mexican navy.
Along with its sister
ship, the Farley Mowat, they removed 100 gill nets between December 2016 and
March 2017, during Operation Milagro lll. Aptly named – it means miracle –the operation
illustrates the odds against the vaquita. In order to survive the next year or
so, the porpoises will need immense resilience and dogged determination.
 |
| The vaquita survival depends on its determination to live |
The future of the vaquita is uncertain and remains gloomy. Most of us
can only spread the word and raise awareness to save this incredibly charming
and harmless cetacean. We can also buy only sustainable seafood or avoid it
altogether as the exposure to toxic chemicals increases – see my blog on
Click on the links below to see how you can help further:
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete