By Inés Amarelo |
San Felipe (Mexico) (EFE).- According to the most recent estimates, there are fewer than ten specimens of vaquita that still inhabit the Upper Gulf of California, in Mexico.
The Secretary of the Navy (Semar) and the NGO Sea Shepherd are reaping the fruits of almost a decade of collaboration to protect the species and say that “it is working.”
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society debuted its new Seahorse boat in Operation Miracle -edition IX- to protect the vaquita.
In Operation Milagro, Sea Shepherd and the Mexican Navy protect the Zero Tolerance Zone (ZTC) of the vaquita refuge, where they work together so that there are no nets that catch this mammal, the most endangered in the world.
The fishing gear also catches totoabas, a fish whose crop is bought for exorbitant sums, since various properties are attributed to it in traditional Chinese medicine.
The totoaba cannot be commercialized, but those who try to do so still persist and with this harm the vaquita, which can get caught in the nets, like other species such as turtles, dolphins and sharks.
The network threat
Entanglement in fishing nets is the greatest documented threat to the survival of the species.
And precisely the joint work to remove networks is working, they assured.
“We have the same interests: that the vaquita continue to live, the most important thing without nets,” Captain Octavio Carranza, Sea Shepherd’s director of operations, said in an interview with EFE.
While Pritam Singh, president of Sea Shepherd, told EFE that 70% of the nets have already been removed. “But our goal is 100%,” he added.
“The thing with the vaquita is that they have a place to live, established for them, where they have historically been. (…) In this area there is a danger: the nets in the water », she explained.
Singh explained that progress in recent years has been to reduce the number of nets that are lost at sea. This, directing efforts to prevent fishermen from releasing them and moving them to the ZTC.
cutting edge technology
And in surveillance work, the Seahorse will have great relevance, since it has state-of-the-art technology designed specifically for this function.
The Seahorse has the most advanced sonar on the boat market.
This sonar is in communication with the radar and with the rest of the ship’s systems, including six cameras that can see everything that happens in the area.
All this information is sent to Semar so that the Navy is in charge of protecting the vaquita.
In addition, Semar carries out controls on the ground, at sea and even from the sky, and they also carry out awareness work with the fishermen.
Protection of the vaquita
“One of the main ways to resolve the situation that is presented is to involve those who have to do with this problem,” said Rear Admiral José Carlos Tinaco, commander of the San Felipe naval sector.
“The fishing sector of the Upper Gulf of California -and specifically that of San Felipe- has put all its effort and has collaborated by taking the necessary measures to avoid entering zero tolerance areas,” he added.
Likewise, he said, they work with them so that they understand that stopping fishing in the ZTC benefits the entire ecosystem so that fishing improves.
Mexico has the obligation, according to the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC), to protect the vaquita porpoise.
In recent months, the United States has been demanding more progress in enforcing Mexico’s fishing-related environmental laws.
This is in reference to Mexican fishing practices that endanger the vaquita and other species, according to the neighboring country.
