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).
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.
I have never heard Vaquitas until just now, so I thank you for that, Abby. It still blows my mind at just how much of the world is explored. Whether deep in the Amazon Rainforest or literally miles deep into the countless oceans that cover our planet, there are still species yet to be discovered. Anyhow, I think that Vaquitas should be saved. Banning gill-nets and prosecuting poachers are definitely two solutions that would benefit the species. They have it rough as it is; they are specialists that are only found in one area of the world and do not reach sexual maturity until six years of age. I think they need all the help they can get.
ReplyDeleteI am like Taylor, I had never heard of a Vaquita before this. I think there should be a major effort to protect them. I agree with you that banning gill nets would greatly increase the chances of their survival. But you will still have poachers, these people will not care at all about what the laws are. I think that the Mexican government needs to get the law enacted immediately and that the penalty for violating the law should be so severe that nobody would be willing to risk being caught.
ReplyDeleteI have very faintly heard of these marine mammals and I am surprised at the population decline being almost solely the work of gill nets. I can imagine how hard it is to maintain a population in an area that is patrolled and monitored up to a point but is still being peneteated for yet another endangered species. Which is another significant problem in its own. I understand the idea of tradition but many ancient Chinese medicine call for specific parts of animals and are still smuggled regardless of their population status.
ReplyDeleteAbbie, I thought that your article was very interesting. I personally have never heard of the vaquita. It was really interesting learning about them. I feel that they should regulate the gill nets more. Gill nets have been known to kill other marine animals such as sea turtles, porpoises, and whales. I give credit to the Mexican Navy for trying very hard to control poachers and increase the vaquita population. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the vaquita population will ever fully recover due to lack of genetic diversity. We will have to see what happens to them.
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