With Only Seven or so Vaquita Porpoises Left on Earth, Mexico Abets Extinction by Allowing a Net Surge
Illegal nets vastly outnumber critically endangered vaquitas in Mexico's fictional "zero tolerance" refuge for the world's tiniest cetacean
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The Spanish translation of this post is here.
The vaquita's long adventure as a distinct element of Earth's dizzying array of living things is a notch closer to an avoidable end.
Conservationists and biologists lament that the Mexican government has done little to prevent fishermen from setting hundreds of nets in the tiny porpoise's supposed "zero tolerance" no-fishing refuge. The result is a drowning maze.
These marine mammals, Mexico's "little cow," split off from cousins in the Southern Hemisphere two million years ago and are confined to a tiny cul-de-sac habitat where the Colorado River meets the Gulf of California.
Vaquitas were never abundant, biologists say. But the latest survey from the refuge, released on December 16 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, estimates they are now down to single digits - most likely 7 or 8 individuals.
Just 13 years ago, the warm waters there were full of the chittering sonar calls made by some 250 of the four-foot-long porpoises as they fed and mated and skirted fishing fleets.
Year by year, acoustic monitors in the refuge have picked up fewer calls - and this year fishermen sabotaged many of those moored microphones. The spreading silence is, to me, the most wrenching signal of what's being lost.
I wrote earlier this year about the species' shockingly swift decline as ever more individuals vanished, presumably drowned in gill nets set in the late summer and fall for shrimp and from December through May to supply a speculation-driven black-market trade to China for the dried swim bladder of the region's totoaba fish species.
The last estimate, from a 2019 survey, was that 10 or 11 vaquita were left. The good news was this tally included several females with healthy calves, and genetic studies showed the species doesn't face a genetic bottleneck, so swift action to cut deaths could stave off extinction.
That is still the case, said Barbara Taylor, a biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who's been working to understand and save the vaquita since the 1990s. And at least one, and maybe two, calves were spotted on the five good viewing days in this fall's survey.
"I'm just relieved that there are still as many out there as there are given these past two horrific years that followed on the heels of a decade of horrific years," she told me. "And really, you can only credit the animals themselves for being there. I have to think that these animals have, to a certain degree, learned how to safely navigate all of the forest of gill nets that they're living in among because otherwise they wouldn't be here."
But bad news dominates. This summer, the "zero tolerance area" the Mexican government had established and pledged to guard as a last-stand refuge for the species was yet again unmonitored and full of nets. Buoys marking its perimeter had been sabotaged, with one ending up on dry land near the fishing town San Felipe, which is the prime hub for the panga fleets.
Ultimately, the world's smallest and rarest cetacean is caught in a multi-dimensional squeeze involving everything from China's unrelenting demand for exotic seafood to cartels and corruption to the populist politics of President Andrés Manuel Lopez-Obrador, for whom, critics say, human rights, let alone an endangered species' rights, are seen as a side issue at best. (Read this fresh new critique by Human Rights Watch to understand why the vaquita's decline is a subset of a larger ethical crisis.)
The shame and tragedy of this moment is that there are safer, and still productive, fishing methods that could limit porpoise losses. There are fishers willing to test such methods. There are actions that China and the United States could take together to stem the demand and help Mexico curtail the illicit trade.
But the world is complicated and all of these nations are focused on other issues far more than the situation of a species circling the extinction drain.
It's worth noting that similar conflicts are playing out elsewhere. In Maine, lobstering communities are facing growing restrictions aimed at saving the last North Atlantic right whales, which can become entangled in the floating gear above traps set on the seabed. In New Zealand, vulnerable Hector’s dolphins and an extremely rare subspecies, the Māui dolphin, are similarly imperiled by gill nets and some other fishing activities.
Particularly vexing to vaquita campaigners and researchers is the lack of Mexican support for those in coastal fishing communities who have sought to test different fishing methods that don't endanger porpoises.
"There are some really good fishermen that want to do the right thing, to improve their villages, the safety of their families, their income," Taylor told me. "And they just have not been given a chance. This year they didn't give any permits to begin using alternative gear. And so those fishermen were just kind of shut out and that couldn't be a worse example to set."
In late November, The New York Times ran a powerful story by Catrin Einhorn, who covers conservation, and Fred Ramos, a freelance photojournalist and reporter in Mexico, describing vividly how political pressures, inflamed by criminal elements in the region, were behind Mexico's decision to render the words "zero tolerance" meaningless:
"Asked about the apparent lack of action, the chief of public affairs for the navy, Rear Adm. José H. Orozco Tocaven, said officers were adapting the rule to the social needs on the ground, effectively allowing the presence of up to 65 boats in the zero-tolerance area. They had never seen more than that, he said. But he acknowledged the overall lack of enforcement. 'We are trying to avoid confrontation,' the admiral said."
Read the full story here.
And be sure to read Benji Jones' intimate Vox portrait of the plight of the vaquita and the stances of those in the fishing community who are inflamed by pressure from conservationists and those who are trying to shift to practices that are safer for the species.
Finally, do what you can to support groups, particularly in Mexico, that are trying to give the vaquita just enough breathing space (literally) that the spreading silence can be slowly replaced with a rise in clicks and chirps, and more glimpses of black-rimmed eyes as the remaining animals surface for a swift roll and inhalation.
Here's my August story - A Porpoise at the Precipice.
Click here for an infographic I produced when writing on my New York Times blog about the vital need for China to do its part to stem the demand for totoaba swim bladder.
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Parting shot
Wherever you are, I hope you and your family and closest circles enjoy a healthy, fruitful path through the holidays and the new year. Here's a bit of holiday cheer someone added to a tree on Little Stony Point along the Hudson River with famed Storm King Mountain across the water.