Mexico dropped almost two hundred weighted hooks into the sea to save the vaquita, but environmentalists doubt the efficacy

(Wikimedia Commons/NOAA https://bit.ly/3FxmzHb)

Mexican navies dropped almost two hundred metal hooks weighted with concrete bases in the habitats of the last Vaquitas.

According to the idea, the hooks should pull illegally installed fishing nets to the bottom, in which vaquitas get tangled and drown.

However, many environmentalists doubt the effectiveness of such measures.

They believe that instead of dubious experiments, the Mexican authorities should be more active in combating illegal fishing and shrimp fishing.

California porpoises (Phocoena sinus), better known as vaquitas, are considered one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

They live only in the north of the Gulf of California.

In the best years, the vaquita population reached from two to five thousand individuals, but in recent decades it has declined to a critically low level.

These small cetaceans get entangled and die in gill nets placed on large totoab fish (Totoaba macdonaldi), whose swim bladder is highly valued in Chinese medicine.

Shrimp nets also pose a serious danger to the vaquita.

According to zoologists, at the end of the last century, about 600 California porpoises lived in the waters of the Gulf of California.

However, by 2014, due to mass mortality in the nets, their numbers had decreased to less than a hundred individuals.

In subsequent years, the number of vaquitas became less and less: three years ago there were less than twenty individuals, and this year there are less than ten.

Attempts to protect the vaquita from extinction have so far yielded almost no results.

For example, the 12-by-24-kilometer section of the Gulf of California near the city of San Felipe, where these cetaceans spend most of their time, was declared a protected area in 2020.

However, even tho, it was forbidden to fish and shrimp, Mexican fishermen have consistently ignored this ban.

And five years ago, an attempt to capture a few vaquitas for captive breeding was abandoned after one of the captured individuals died.

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THE NEW MEASURE
Recently, the Mexican authorities have adopted a new strategy that is designed to clear the waters of the Gulf of California from the networks that threaten the vaquitas.

Last July, navy sailors went to a protected area where fishing is prohibited, and dropped 193 metal hooks with concrete weights in different parts of it.

According to the idea, the hooks will catch on illegally installed nets and drag them to the bottom, where they will no longer pose a danger to the vaquita.

Whether the sunken hooks are planned to be cleared of nets remains unclear.

However, conservationists are not enthusiastic about this idea: the nets that are at the bottom can become a trap for other marine life.

And breaking up into pieces, they will contribute to the pollution of the sea with plastic.

Also, although weighted hooks were dropped as early as the summer, there have been no reports of the effectiveness of this strategy.

At the same time, fishing vessels have already been seen in the protected area, which were not deterred by the risk of losing their nets.

Ecologist Alex Olivera of the American conservation organization Center for Biological Diversity notes that instead of controversial experiments with hooks, the Mexican authorities should finally establish effective protection of areas where vaquitas live

The authorities should also provide local residents who live off fishing, alternative sources of income.

Sources:

• New Scientist: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2349684-mexicos-latest-plan-to-save-endangered-vaquitas-could-backfire/
• El Economista: https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/internacionales/Si-Mexico-no-garantiza-proteccion-de-la-vaquita-marina-se-le-impondran-sanciones-CITES-20221116-0095.html

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