Featured Image Credit: Flip Nicklin via Minden Pictures
By Alice Morris
Efforts to save the critically endangered vaquita prompted violent attacks in Mexico earlier this month.
The Associated Press described a “gang of dozens of fishermen” attacking inspectors from Mexico’s office for environmental protection in Golfo de Santa Clara, Mexico following recent conflicts between conservationists and local fishermen.
Authorities plan on filing charges against the fishermen, who also damaged the inspectors’ vehicles.
U.S. and Mexican conservationists have been fighting for years to save the vaquita, a rare species of porpoise found only in the northern part of the Gulf of California.
A study conducted by an international committee of experts last November showed a 90% decrease in vaquita numbers over the past five years, with as few as thirty individuals surviving in the wild today.
Conflict between conservationists and fishermen escalated five years ago following a rise in demand for totoaba, an endangered species of fish that can be sold for thousands of dollars on the black market.
Totoaba live in close proximity to vaquitas, so as fishermen began targeting the desirable fish, more and more vaquitas were getting entangled in the fishermen’s’ gillnets as by-catch.
The most recent conflicts in Golfo de Santa Clara were spurred by delays in administering permits for fishermen to catch corvina, a fish that is usually legal to catch this time of year. Many conservationists feared that gillnets could be deployed from these fishing boats, which would make catching vaquita poachers more difficult.
Though inspectors say the fishermen applied too late for the corvina permits, the delay angered many fishermen.
U.S. and Mexican authorities have tried various strategies to protect the vaquita in the past.
In 2015, the Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto placed an emergency 2-year ban on gillnets, which are responsible for killing many vaquitas. This ban has proven difficult to enforce though and additional crackdowns on poaching have done little to remove stress on the vaquita.
The Mexican government also established a refuge in the northern part of the Gulf of California and offered to compensate fishermen for any related monetary losses.
Perhaps the most extreme plan to save the vaquita was announced at the beginning of 2017 when the U.S. Navy proposed using specially trained military dolphins, which are usually used to detect underwater threats, to track vaquitas so that they could be captured and placed in captivity.
This proposal has its drawbacks. The capture process is extremely stressful for vaquitas and many could die during capture or due to the stress of captivity.
Many conservationists also worry that removing vaquitas from the wild will endanger other threatened species as fishermen will have fewer regulations placed on them.
Though conservationists are working hard to save vaquitas, time may be running out for these porpoises and just last week two dead vaquitas were found in the Gulf of Mexico.
Some experts predict the species could go extinct by 2018.