Mexico takes ‘unprecedented’ action to save vaquita

by Mongabay.com on 15 October 2017

A team of marine mammal experts have begun a search for the last vaquitas (Phocoena sinus) in a last-ditch effort to capture the remaining 30 porpoises until they’re no longer threatened by gillnets.

VaquitaCPR seeks to house the vaquita in sea pens and includes plans for long-term care and breeding.

Though seen as ‘risky’ and ‘bold,’ many conservation organizations agree that finding the animals before it’s too late is the only option.

A team of marine mammal experts is searching for the last vaquitas (Phocoena sinus) in the Gulf of California. They’ve gathered in northern Mexico, at the invitation of the government of Mexico, to make a last-ditch effort to capture and keep the remaining 30 porpoises safe until they’re no longer threatened by the gillnets that have decimated their numbers in recent years.

“We are watching this precious native species disappear before our eyes,” said Rafael Pacchiano, Mexico’s minister of the environment and natural resources, in a January 2017 statement from the National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF). “This critical rescue effort is a priority for the Mexican government and we are dedicated to providing the necessary resources in order to give the plan its best chance of success.”

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World's rarest cetacean threatened by illegal gillnets

2 hours ago by Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times

The world's rarest cetacean could disappear in less than four years unless immediate action is taken by the Mexican government to protect it from entanglement in gillnets deployed illegally in its Gulf of California refuge, federal officials said Tuesday.

Fewer than 100 critically endangered vaquitas remain in the wild, and U.S. officials and conservationists are urging Mexico to crack down on shrimp gillnetters operating within the 488-square-mile refuge created to protect the 5-foot-long, porpoise-like species.

Vaquitas are also being decimated by illegal trade of an endangered fish known as totoaba, which is supplying a demand for swim bladders in China.

"Time is running out," Rebecca Lent, executive director of the Marine Mammal Commission, an independent U.S. agency, said in an interview. "The government of Mexico has made an effort, but it has been ineffective. What we need is a firm commitment by Mexico to stop the gillnetting. Now."

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UV lights reduce turtle bycatch – via Herp Digest

July 24, 2013, Conservation Magazine

Researchers have devised a simple but effective way to reduce the number of turtles accidentally caught by fishing nets: Illuminate the nets with ultraviolet lights.

When fishing boats gather fish such as flounders, they often pick up sea turtles as well. This bycatch is “a barrier to the recovery of sea turtle populations,” researchers write in Biology Letters. But they note that green, loggerhead, and leatherback turtles can detect UV light — a capability that sets them apart from some fish species.

The team attached UV LED lights to floatlines and tested them around Punta Abreojos and Bahia de los Angeles, Mexico. The lights cut the amount of turtle bycatch by 40 percent, the researchers found. The technique didn’t appear to scare fish away: In a commercial gillnet fishery, the number of target fish caught by nets with and without UV illumination didn’t significantly differ. The team performed their tests at night, so the next step is to try the UV lights during the day. — Roberta Kwok | 24 July 2013

Source: Wang, J. et al. 2013. Developing ultraviolet illumination of gillnets as a method to reduce sea turtle bycatch. Biology Letters doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0383.