World Wildlife Fund

Steve Cox

Blog 28 July 2008
Vice President and Priority Leader Gulf of California

Posted 28 July 2008, 4.14 PM

Hi - my name is Steve Cox and I am really pleased to be blogging this week. I would like to use this opportunity to talk about the vaquita (Phocoena sinus),the smallest cetacean in the world, endemic to the Gulf of California. The vaquita is critically endangered and on a rapid path to extinction. Right now there are estimated to be only 150 vaquita existing!! 

The vaquita can be found in the Upper Gulf and Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve, one of the planet's most extraordinary marine habitats, also home to 1,429 other species, 1,050 macro invertebrates, 230 fishes, 131 birds, 5 marine reptiles, and 13 marine mammals.

Bycatch, accidental catch by fishermen, is the main cause of the vaquita mortality. An average of 50 per year have been killed by entanglement in gill-nets over the last 15 years. As a result of the declining population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have place the vaquita in their most critically endangered categories, and the Mexican government and the U.S. Endangered Species Act also list the vaquita as endangered.

Please send me any questions or comments you might have about what WWF is doing to help protect this species.

Thanks - Steve.

Comment on this post

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Posted 28 July 2008, 5.02 PM

Tina R. wrote:
Sounds like the vaquita is really in danger  - what is WWF doing to help protect this species?

Steve's response:
Really good question - thanks. The Mexican government has crafted an integrated strategy for saving the vaquita by addressing the biggest threat to the species - the use of gillnets in fishing. Its goal is to end the practice of gillnet fishing in the Upper Gulf of California by 2009, while maintaining the livelihoods of those currently using gillnets.

WWF and other national and international conservation organizations are working together to provide material and analytical support towards the effort. Specifically, WWF is helping to create the enabling conditions for a public policy of private conservation arrangements that modify fisheries practices to protect the vaquita from extinction and assure the sustainability of communities.This is entails a public-private buyout effort, the leasing of gillnets, and gear swaps. Saving the vaquita requires removal of gillnets of all mesh sizes. The strategies to compensate fishermen for removing gillnets include:

• A permanent buy-out - purchasing gear, boats and permits from fishermen who stop using gillnets.
• A temporary rent-out - renting gear, boats and permits to reduce mortality now while permanent options are explored.
• A swap-out - swapping non-entangling gear for gillnets, such as traps or suriperas (a modified cast net used in coastal lagoons in the Gulf that do not catch vaquitas).

A joint WWF and TNC (The Nature Conservancy) Gulf of California team is exploring several options for private marine and coastal conservation to complement and augment existing protection strategies. Those include coastal zone concessions, coastal land, kelp concessions, water rights acquisitions, incentive-based fisheries management tools, and fishing buy-outs.

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Posted 29 July 2008, 11.03 AM

Carl T. wrote:
Have you ever seen one in the wild? What do they look like?

Steve's response:
Vaquitas are evasive and shy animals so it is very difficult to see them in the wild. There have been very few sightings.The pectoral fins of phocoena sinus are longer than in other species of porpoise, and the dorsal fin is taller in proportion to the body length. The coloration of the vaquita is unique. In adults, the dorsal surface is dark grey, the sides are pale grey and the ventral surface is white with some long, light grey markings. This porpoise has a large dark ring around the eyes and dark patches on the lips that form a thin line from the mouth to the pectoral fins. In the newborn, the coloration is darker than in adults, particularly in the head and in the areas behind the eyes. There is a wide grey fringe of color that runs from the head to the dorsal flukes, passing through the dorsal and pectoral fins. At birth, vaquita are estimated to be 67-75 cm in length and weigh between 7.5-10 kg. The female adults grows to 135-150 cm and males grow to 128-145 cm,  weighing approximately 55 kg. Have I ever seen one - not yet!!!! But I hope with the conservation strategy we are working towards, as populations grow, there will be more sightings.

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Posted 29 July 2008, 12.13 PM

Jamie R wrote:
Why are the vaquita facing extinction - is it just because of bycatch?

Steve's response:
There are two primary reasons why the vaquita population is under threat - these being natural predation and incidental mortality (bycatch) in fisheries activities. As we learn more about the Vaquita, we better understand their natural predators. Researchers have found parts of Vaquita in the stomachs of several species of large sharks, including: the white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), the lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris) among others. Some vaquita tangled in nets showed scars on their flukes from teeth that could be shark or killer whale, but there have been no direct reports of attacks on vaquita by these species of sharks or by killer whales.

The greatest threat to the vaquita is death by entanglement in the gillnets used by fishers in small, artisanal fishing boats - known as pangas. The water in the Upper Gulf of California, where vaquitas live, is very turbid and it is very difficult for the animals to see the nets. Thus they are easily caught and since they need to go to the surface to breathe, when they get entangled in fishing nets and unable to free themselves from the nets, they drown. In the coastal fisheries of the upper Gulf, an area of strong currents, gill nets are the most common, most preferred and widely distributed fishing method. Different types and sizes of gill nets are used for different fisheries. It is likely that vaquita have been captured in these nets since the middle of the 1920. Vaquita get entangled in 8 inches nets set for shark and manta rays, but it has been reported that vaquitas get also caught during fishing activities that use gill nets with mesh sizes between 2.5 and 8 inches, used for shrimp, sierra, chano, corvine and other species.