MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s number in critical danger The number of vaquita porpoises sighted in the Gulf of California has dropped to between 6 and 8 this year, researchers said Tuesday.
But some of the few remaining vaquitas—the world’s smallest porpoise and most endangered marine mammal—may have moved to another part of the Gulf, the only place in the world where they live.
Last year, experts on a sighting expedition estimated that I saw 10 to 13 of the small, shy and elusive porpoises for almost two weeks of sailing in the Gulf, also known as the Sea of Cortez.
But this year, the conservation group Sea Shepherd said a similar expedition from May 5 to 26 sighted only about half a dozen, although the search was not as extensive as last year’s. The most worrying thing is that this year no baby vaquita were seen.
“Unlike 2023, no newborn calves were observed, but a healthy juvenile was observed,” Sea Shepherd said in a statement.
However, about half of last year’s sightings occurred outside and just west of the vaquita’s exclusive protection zone, a heavily patrolled area in the Gulf where all fishing is prohibited, although some still occur illegally.
Experts aren’t exactly sure why vaquitas might like the area just outside the protected zone, but this year’s expedition focused on areas within the zone.
Because they are so small and elusive, vaquitas can often only be seen from afar through powerful binoculars, so such sightings are classified as probable or likely. Thus, the figures are expressed in probable “ranges” of the real figure.
The animals also make “clicks” that can be heard through acoustic monitoring devices.
“While these results are concerning, the area studied represents only 12% of the total area where vaquitas were observed in 2015,” said Dr. Barbara Taylor, a researcher who led the study. “Since the vaquitas move freely within the vaquita refuge, “We must expand reconnaissance using acoustic detection to determine where the vaquitas are going.”
There are plans to do just that. But according to the previous report, “fishermen have begun removing the acoustic devices (CPOD) used to record the vaquita’s clicks. Data recorded on each device is lost and stolen CPODs are expensive to replace.”
“Unless enforcement of the fishing ban is effective and equipment theft is stopped, acoustic monitoring will not be able to collect data as it has in the past,” the report states.
Last year’s report raised hopes for the species, which lives nowhere else and cannot be caught, kept or bred in captivity.
But this year’s report was another bad news for the species. Illegal gillnets have trapped and killed vaquitas for decades; The reported population has decreased from almost 600 vaquitas in 1997.
Fishermen set nets to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China and can fetch thousands of dollars per pound.
While the Mexican government has made some efforts to stop net fishing, such as Sinking concrete blocks with hooks to hook nets in the protected area. — fishermen still appear to have the upper hand, regularly casting illegal nets and even sabotaging surveillance efforts.
Alex Olivera, representative in Mexico of the Center for Biological Diversity, said that “vaquitas reproduce so slowly that recovery is impossible without help, and their own survival remains in serious doubt.”
“Vaquitas face a serious threat of extinction due to dangerous gillnets in their habitat and the Mexican government’s lax enforcement of protective regulations,” Olivera said, noting that “it is crucial” that enforcement be stepped up now.
Olivera, who was not part of the expedition, previously estimated that “even in a habitat free of gillnets, it will take about 50 years for the population to return to where it was 15 years ago.”
The administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has largely refused to spend money compensate fishers for staying out of the vaquita refuge and stop using gillnets, or monitor their presence or the areas from which they cast.
Sea Shepherd has been working in the Gulf alongside the Mexican Navy to discourage illegal fishing in the protected area. Government protection efforts have been uneven at best, and also often face violent opposition from local fishermen.
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