The military stepped up surveillance in January in the Sea of Cortez, where the vaquita is endemic, amid criticism from the United States that Mexico does little to protect what is considered the rarest and most endangered marine mammal in the world.
The display also came after researchers sighted eight specimens between October and November last. It is estimated that there are up to twenty individuals leftaccording Sea Shepherd. Now, the sailors and members of the NGO monitor the area all day, looking for illegal nets and preventing fishermen from approaching the “zero tolerance zone”, where the vaquita lives and marked with yellow buoys.
The vaquita has the best chance (to survive) it has had in decades
Chuck Lindsey, CEO of Sea Shepherd.
During a tour, the Navy said it has recovered 70 nets so far this yearcompared to 172 for all of 2021. “The efforts that we have seen specifically in the last three or four months mean that the vaquita has the best chance (to survive) that it has had in decades,” Chuck Lindsey, executive director, told AFP. from Sea Shepherd. “We see a dramatic reduction in illegal fishing nets in the water,” she added.
The smallest cetacean – which counts the actor Leonardo DiCaprio among its most famous defenders – reaches a maximum length of 1.5 meters and a weight of 50 kilos. Its scientific name is Phocoena sinus and it is easily recognizable by the dark circles that surround its eyes and mouth, which is why it is also called the “panda of the sea”.
Its population decreased drastically because the specimens were stuck during the illegal fishing of totoabawhose swim bladder sells for up to $8,000 a kilo in China, where it is consumed for its supposed medicinal properties.
Since 1996 the vaquita has been considered an endangered species.and in 2019 UNESCO added the Gulf of California to its list of World Heritage in Danger due to the risk of extinction of the species.
Mexican sailors and officials monitor from dawn that fishermen have authorizations to capture permitted species. After the tasks to catch corvinas, they check their nets. The workers assure that they avoid fishing totoabas and applaud the measures to protect the vaquitabut some argue that the reviews miss key points.
“What they should check is beyond the boardwalk, there are many pangas (vessels) that do not have permission,” said Roberto López, during an inspection. “Every day they check on us,” adds López, noting that there are fishermen who ignore the authorities.