PERU fishing with guts to report…
Now, experts have an eye on the call Vaquita, a species of Cetacea Family porpoises living only in the waters of the Mexican Pacific coast in the northern Gulf of California.
According to recent estimates, only about 90 are examples of this shy and elusive animal very similar to the Dolphins look and which, if not taken drastic measures to preserve, could soon become part of the list of extinct species because of human action.
If that happened, it would be the first Cetacea disappear in North America on record and the first in the world from the Baiji Dolphin in 2006.
The Vaquitas which usually measure just over five feet and have a characteristic black circles around the eyes and mouth are dying to get caught in gill nets and gill nets, used to catch blue shrimp, highly prized in US restaurants.
Another factor that has put the verge of extinction is the illegal fishing of other endangered species, the totoaba Fish, whose crop (swim bladder) is highly prized in traditional Chinese medicine and which you can expect to pay more than US $ 8,000 a kilo.
The experts have spent months waiting for the Mexican government announced additional measures to save the Vaquita, as the ban on gillnet fishing in the area of the Upper Gulf of California in which only the existente- shelter or increased live-not the fight against illegal fishing.
For now, all we know is that the government continues to negotiate with fishermen and local authorities. The talks are complicated, as thousands of families living off fishing on habitat Vaquitas and implement new methods to capture the seafood is not easy.
Scientists from the International Commission for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA) believe it is essential that the Chinese government involvement in efforts to save this animal.
They believe that Beijing has to cooperate in combating illegal trade in the crops of totoaba, which are taken from Mexico by criminal gangs engaged in smuggling of endangered species and sold in traditional markets in Hong Kong and mainland China.
SHELTER
From Mexico explains the BBC journalist Alberto Najar, since 2005 the Mexican government has implemented several programs to protect from illegal fishing to Vaquitas, deploying ships and troops from the Navy.
In mid-2013, says Najar, was published in the Official Journal of the Federation -the official publication of the government a special rule for the protection of Cetacea.
The legislation established a refuge area in the Upper Gulf of California where fishing is prohibited and is guarded by the Navy and environmental authorities.
The National Commissioner of Aquaculture and Fisheries (CONAPESCA), Mario Aguilar Sánchez, said that preventing the extinction of Cetacea is “priority” for the authorities.
However, scientists and environmentalists have complained that the talks between the Mexican government and the Fishermen and local authorities, they are not participating experts conservation Vaquitas.
They also believe that official efforts have failed to protect these Cetaceans, whose existence was discovered just over half a century.
In 2009, for example, had counted more than 500 copies in its habitat in the Gulf of California, near the delta of the Colorado River.
In 2014, that number dropped to less than 100, of which only 25 would be female, which would endanger the reproduction of the species.
According Nájar explains, has long environmental organizations insist that the resources to protect Vaquitas are insufficient.
In fact, the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA), held in reserve only 18 inspectors and three boats to monitor an area of at least 1,270 square kilometers.
COMPLICATED NEGOTIATIONS
“Politically the government is acting in the right direction, but for the precarious situation of the Vaquita, the speed at emergency action should be”Explains in conversation with BBC Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, Research Coordinator and conservation of marine mammals of the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change in Mexico.
According to Rojas-Bracho, the creation in 2013 of the Commission of the Presidency for the Recovery of the Vaquita reflects the importance the government gives this Cetacea.
“Negotiations to close the fisheries in the area in which they live Vaquitas are complicated. We have to negotiate not only with sinners and local authorities but also with those in the production chain, which are those who buy the shrimp, which pack it, those distributing, etc ...”.
“I think the big decline in the population of Vaquitas took us all by surprise. We knew the numbers were declining, however when it started about three years ago fever fish Fishing totoaba got worse, when triggered illegal fishing”Said the expert.
“Fishermen have to understand that in the end will be the ones affected if Vaquitas disappear, as the international market product does not come from illegal fishing or is not sustainable, the incidental killing Marine Mammals”Says Rojas-Bracho.
LOCATION “REVIEW”
Barbara Taylor, Expert of the National Marine Fisheries Service US (NMFS, for its acronym in English) and member of the International Commission for the recovery of the Vaquita says the situation “this unique animal is extremely critical”.
“We have not seen any improvement in the implementation of measures to save them, the most important of which should be banning the use of gillnets, which are those that are killing”Says Taylor in conversation with BBC World.
“We fear that if nothing is done, the Vaquitas can disappear in one or two years, or earlier“Said the expert, who points out that when the population of an animal “low 100 copies things become much more unpredictable”.
Taylor believes Americans, as responsible consumers, should help Mexico to the Vaquita not go away, refusing to buy the shrimp fishing is prohibited in the habitat where the Cetacean live networks.
“Since mid-September the Mexican government has been ensuring they would do an ad and still has not occurred. Amidst talks with fishermen, each day that passes is a danger that the Vaquita is increasing disappears”Said Taylor, who points out that although an agreement is reached, totoaba illegal fishing remains a problem.
“We are perhaps in the last moments of a species we may lose forever. I have attended extinction Dolphin Yellow River in China and this would be the second marine mammal is allowed to disappear because of human action”.
SOURCE: Bbc.co.uk
