Update: After death of captured vaquita, conservationists call off rescue effort

By Elizabeth PennisiNov. 9, 2017 , 5:45 PM

On Friday, VaquitaCPR, the $5 million last-ditch effort by the Mexican government and conservationists to capture a rare porpoise called the vaquita, will formally announce the end of the project. The team captured two vaquitas: One, a calf, had to be released because it was stressed; the other, an adult female, died before it could be released. Since that death on 5 November, the 67-person team stopped trying to capture this diminutive cetacean. Instead, it has focused on trying to get detailed photographs of the 15 or so animals that still exist in the Gulf of California, their only habitat, so they can keep better track of the animals.

Continually plagued by bad weather, the project was halted because the vaquitas reacted poorly to being placed in the sea pen designed to house them. That persuaded researchers that capturing the animals was not worth the risk. “There’s nothing worse than having an animal die in your hands,” says Frances Gulland, the lead VaquitaCPR veterinarian and a scientist at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California. 

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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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Chinese appetite for totoaba fish bladder kills off rare porpoise

Only 30 vaquita are left in Gulf of California as pirate fishermen net them when fishing for highly valued totoaba maws

Damian Carrington Environment editor

Tuesday 16 May 2017 11.05 BST First published on Tuesday 16 May 2017 06.01 BST 

The world’s rarest marine mammal is on the verge of extinction due to the continuing illegal demand in China for a valuable fish organ, an undercover investigation has revealed.

There are no more than 30 vaquita – a five-foot porpoise – left in the northern Gulf of California today and they could be extinct within months, conservationists have warned. The population has been all but eradicated by pirate fishermen catching the large totoaba fish and killing the vaquita in the process.

The totoaba, which is itself highly endangered, is caught for its swim bladders which are smuggled to China for sale on the black market. Undercover investigators found the swim bladders, called maws, for sale in Shantou in Guandong province, at an average price of $20,000 per kilogram. The cost has led to the maws being dubbed “aquatic cocaine”.

 “The demand is still strong and stable – it is not going down – and prices are climbing again,” said Andrea Crosta, from the Elephant Action League, an intelligence-led group now targeting all wildlife crime and which conducted the totoaba investigation. 

“Because it is very expensive, it remains a product for wealthy people,” he said. “The law enforcement is very weak because it is not top priority and probably because it involves rich and powerful people.”

One trader in the illegal maws told the investigators: “When the government comes to check, they call and inform us earlier and we will hide them when they come.” However, the trade is less open than it once was. Chinese buyers of maws prefer those from domestic waters but these are exceedingly rare now, having been intensively fished for many decades.

The demand for totoaba maws is driven by its use as a business gift, investment or wedding dowry, as well as its supposed medicinal benefits, the investigation found.

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Captive breeding is a final roll of the dice for the vaquita

9 May 2017

By Olive Heffernan

Yet another vaquita has turned up dead in recent weeks, making one less of the small, smiley-faced porpoise that is the world’s most endangered cetacean.

Estimated to number as few as 30 earlier this year, this endearing species has become a poster child for conservation – not least because its decline has been obvious for decades, yet all attempts to save it so far have failed.

In a last-ditch attempt to avoid extinction, scientists are now preparing to capture some of the remaining vaquitas and breed them in captivity. This high-risk move may appear extreme, but further losses are reinforcing the need for urgent action: another four have washed up dead so far this year, after getting entangled in fishing nets.

The continued toll seems astonishing given that the vaquita’s home in the upper Gulf of California, just off north-west Mexico, has been protected as a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 1993, when there were around 600 of the mammals left. Despite that, the area continues to be plundered by both legal and illegal fishing.

The biggest problem is poachers using gill nets, which are particularly dangerous for vaquitas. The poachers illegally fish in the reserve for totoaba, a large endangered species whose swim bladder is known as “aquatic cocaine” – fetching tens of thousands of dollars in China for its purported, though unproven, health benefits.

But Mexican officials have consistently ignored scientific advice to permanently prohibit all gill nets in the porpoise’s home waters. Instead, they have opted for short-term measures, such as a two-year emergency ban on their use that ends this month.

These efforts, along with the wider conservation campaign, backed by the likes of Miley Cyrus and Leonardo DiCaprio, have not nearly been enough.


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Mexico commits $37 million to world’s smallest porpoise

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Kevin Heath

The vaquita is the world’s smallest porpoise and with less than 100 remaining its future may not be certain. Living only in the Upper Sea of Cortez the porpoise is threatened by the gillnets used by fishermen to catch the totoaba fish. With just 25 breeding females in the population any more losses could be devastating for the species.

Mexico has just announced a $37 million action plan to conserve the species and it involves the porpoises being protected by naval drones and high-speed patrol boats.

The plan announced by Environment Department official Rafael Pacchiano will last for 2 years and will see a ban on gillnets being bought in later in March. The ban will be enforced by the use of naval drones and a fleet of patrol boats. Three naval bases will co-ordinate the monitoring and they will have access to satellite data.

The no-fish zone will also be greatly enlarged from the small marine reserve at the tip of the Sea of Cortez to take in most of the Baja California coastline.

Local fishermen will receive compensation for the loss of their gillnets and local fishermen will also be used to help enforce the ban.

The WWF in Mexico have welcomed the plan but is concerned that fishermen don’t just need to be compensated for their gillnets but also need to be trained in the use of different types of fishing techniques to help the fishery become sustainable.

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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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New rules may help world’s rarest porpoise, Vaquita, avoid extinction

Mexican government approves selective fishing gear to reduce Vaquita bycatch

July 2013. On the 6th June 2013 the Government of Mexico took an important step towards saving the vaquita, the world's smallest and rarest cetacean. 

The Mexican Government has adopted important modifications to their fishing rules which will require the progressive substitution of shrimp drift gillnets, one of the main fishing gears in which vaquitas die incidentally, with more selective gear that does not kill porpoises. The Mexican government ordered a three-year, gradual substitution of drift gillnets for the new selective net (30% the first year, 30% the second and 40% the third).

Turtle excluder

The new net, known as the RS.INP.MX (acronym for "Selective Net of the National Fisheries Institute-Mexico") is a small driftnet adapted for use with small vessels (6 metre fibre glass "pangas" with four-stroke gasoline outboard engines) that has a number of features that make it more selective than the gillnets, including a turtle excluder device, a "Fisheye" type fish excluder to exclude smaller-sized species and a double headline or lower line with rollers to reduce damage to the seabed. It is composed of lighter materials to reduce fuel consumption and minimize seabed damage. Mesh size decreases progressively along the net to avoid capturing non-target species. The net has hydrodynamic trawl doors to reduce resistance and increase efficiency, and its smaller dimensions mean it can be deployed from artisanal fishing vessels ("pangas").

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