How can we help one of the worlds smallest porpoises? (Reposting from 2017)

Rare Marine Mammal on the Road to Extinction


For my first blog post I wanted to inform you about the bleak future of an endangered species you may not have heard of. This species is the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), which, according to the World Wildlife Fund, remained unknown to science until 1958, and little over a half a century later is in danger of extinction (Vaquita). The vaquita is the smallest cetacean; marine mammals such as dolphins, porpoises and whales, in the world, measuring around 5 feet in total length (Goldfarb, 2016). A study from the Porpoise Conservation Society estimates that there were around 5,000 vaquitas in the 1930’s, with a ninety percent decline between 2011 and 2016 alone. In fact, more than half of the population has been lost in the past three years alone (Save). The vaquitas population decline is not helped by how specific its habitat is, vaquitas are only found in the northern most part of the Gulf of California where the waters are fertile. According to an article on the website the guardian the vaquitas entire range can fit inside the city limits of Los Angeles, four times (Goldfarb, 2016).

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The reason for this drastic decline in the population is due to the poaching of another endangered species. Thanks to a high demand from China poachers have been using gill-nets to illegally catch a large fish known as a totoaba. The totoaba, like the vaquita, is critically endangered due to over fishing. These fish are harvested mainly for their swim bladders, which are dried and shipped to china, where they are bought for thousands of dollars as a delicacy. One of the reasons why the demand for this fish is so high is that the swim bladder is believed to have medicinal properties, however without scientific evidence backing this claim consumers are most likely experiencing a placebo effect. The vaquitas are suffering from the illegal trade of totoaba swim bladders because many of them are getting tangled in the gill-nets and drowning, causing the massive population decline (Malkin, 2017).

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 The Mexican government has tried, almost in vain to protect the vaquitas from the gill-nets by law. In April 2015, the Mexican government announced a two-year ban forbidding the use of gill nets within the vaquitas' habitat, to try to improve the species chances of survival. The government also provided compensation pay to the fishermen who would not be able to fish in the area for the extent of the ban. However, even though the ban was enforced by the Mexican Navy the poachers were undeterred, some would even pull their boats to within a few hundred yards of the naval ships to pull in their nets. The poachers that were deterred from fishing during the daily patrols of the Mexican Navy just switched their retrieval and deployment of their nets to night hours. The poachers that the Navy did manage to catch could be convicted of a serious crime due to the prosecution being too splash dash (Malkin, 2017).
 The United States Navy and the Mexican Navy are now working together to attempt to save the vaquita. With the US Navy bringing in some specially trained bottle-nosed dolphins to aid in the protection efforts. The US Navy has dolphins trained to detect mines and other items of interest in the oceans, the Navy is planning to put these skills to use in finding and safely capturing a few vaquitas. The captured vaquitas will live in a semi-natural environment until the poaching is taken care of. Despite the good intentions of the Navy however there is the possibility of negative consequences that could be catastrophic to the vaquita population. With the population, as low as it is, less than 30 individuals, the loss of even a single vaquita during the relocation process could be detrimental to plans of repopulation (Becker, 2017). Many conservation groups feel that instead of using dolphins to round up the vaquitas, and causing unneeded stress as well as possible death, Mexico should completely ban gill-nets throughout all the vaquitas habitat. The Mexican government has a plan for such a ban but has yet to act upon it (Malkin, 2017).

I know you are probably wondering why you should care about the vaquita, the main reason why I feel that we should care is that if gill-nets are banned entirely there is a high likelihood that the vaquita can be saved from extinction. Granted it will take a while as female vaquitas cannot reproduce until their sixth year and then only give birth every other year on average. Despite the reproductive limits of the vaquitas the only true obstacle to their survival is the gill-nets. The gill-nets seem to be the only unnatural cause of death to vaquitas, and without them this species would not be in danger of extinction. I feel that it is important to protect the vaquitas because even though it may not be our own personal fault that they are endangered, humans are still at fault, but we can help bring them back.

Abbie Smith
 Citations:


1.      Becker, R. 2017. Vaquita population drops below 30 as US Navy dolphins race to save     them from extinction. The Verge. The Verge.     <http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/4/14167738/navy-dolphins-military-save-  vaquitas-endangered-porpoise> Accessed 1 Mar 2017.

2.      Goldfarb, B. 2016. Fish poachers push Mexico's endangered porpoises to brink of             extinction. the guardian. the guardian.           <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/01/fish-poachers-push-            mexicos-endangered-porpoises-to-brink-of-extinction> Accessed 1 Mar 2017.

3.      Malkin, E. 2017. Before Vaquitas Vanish, a Desperate Bid to Save Them. The New York Times. The New York Times. <http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/science/vaquitas-dolphins-mextinction.html?_r=0> Accessed 3 Mar 2017.

4.      Save the Vaquita. n.d. Save the Vaquita Porpoise - Porpoise Conservation Society.            Porpoise Conservation Society. <http://porpoise.org/save-the-vaquita/?gclid=CJCqxY7xtdICFVmBswodk5wA3w> Accessed 1 Mar 2017.

5.      Vaquita. n.d. World Wildlife Fund. World Wildlife Fund.             <http://worldwildlifefund.org/species/vaquita> Accessed 1 Mar 2017.

6.      http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/165/929/291/

7.      http://www.iaes.gob.mx/index.php?pag=infografia-de-la-totoaba

 

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