Mexico's vaquita on brink of extinction

[unhappycamper]

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/aug/10/vaquita-porpoise-brink-extinction-gulf-california/



A vaquita porpoise caught in an illegal totoaba net. A vaquita porpoise caught in an illegal totoaba net.

Mexico's vaquita on brink of extinction
By Sandra Dibble
6 a.m.Aug. 10, 2014

SAN FELIPE, Mexico — For years, scientists have warned of the declining numbers of vaquita porpoise, a small and elusive sea mammal endemic to the muddy waters of the Upper Gulf of California. With fewer than 100 vaquita believed alive today, the species is now facing a new threat to its survival: growing demand for another endangered species in the region, the giant totoaba fish, whose swim bladder is valued in China for its perceived medicinal value.

Small and naturally shy, “the vaquita is in imminent danger of extinction,” states a report by the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita, a group of experts appointed by the Mexican government. “Unless drastic action is taken immediately, the vaquita will be lost.”



Fishermen head off at sundown in San Felipe in pangas carrying gillnets to catch sierra, or mackerel.

If nothing is done, scientists warn that by 2018 the vaquita will follow in the footsteps of the now-extinct baiji dolphin that once flourished on China’s Yangtse River.

Scientists say the main threat to the vaquita are the drift gill nets favored by fishermen who catch shrimp and fish in the Upper Gulf. The vaquitas are an unintended bycatch that become ensnared in the nets and drown.