13 Dec On Friday, the Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita
save Mexico’s ‘panda of the sea’ opinion
He has worked for more than three decades on conservation of natural resources and sustainable development in Mexico, the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia with the United Nations, universities and canadian goose jacket NGOs. The opinions expressed here are canada goose clearance his. border, President Enrique Pea Nieto launched a bold national effort to improve the well being of fishing communities in the Upper Gulf of California and to save the endangered vaquita (Spanish for “little cow”).
The Upper Gulf is the only Canada Goose Online place on Earth where this tiny porpoise is found. The vaquita was first known to the world in 1958 when American biologists Ken Norris and William McFarland described it from three skulls found on a beach just a few miles from where the President announced his plan. Maxing out at just five feet long, the vaquita is the smallest of the world’s porpoise, dolphin, and whale species. And it’s about to disappear forever.
I joined the President in San Felipe Canada Goose Coats On Sale a canada goose coats year ago. I ended my speech that day Canada Goose sale by sharing the conviction linked website that this was the last opportunity to save this Mexican porpoise. I have dedicated half canada goose outlet toronto factory of my life to the study and conservation of the vaquita, dealing with six different Mexican presidents in the canada goose deals process.
Just a year later, the vaquita is now even closer to extinction. On Friday, the Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA) released the most recent population estimates for this porpoise, based on intensive surveys carried out between September and December 2015 by an international team of scientists supported by the Mexican government. Only around 60 vaquitas remain, according to canada goose outlet store locations CIRVA.
This is terrible canada goose news. The last population count canada goose clearance sale in 2014 found an estimated 97 vaquitas. This means that 40% of the remaining vaquitas died in the last year.
The fish that could save the vaquita
So Canada Goose Outlet what went wrong? A year after the President’s announcement, little has been gained, and an entire year has been lost in this final sprint to save the vaquita.
Each year, buy canada goose jacket cheap about one in five vaquitas canada goose black friday sale is drowned in fishing nets. Vaquitas are killed in gillnets, canada goose store a widespread type Canada Goose Jackets of non selective gear that has depleted several species of importance to the local economy, such as totoaba, sharks, manta rays, corvinas and other fish. Flanked by the heads of the army, navy, environment, fisheries, and social development departments, the President announced a two year ban on the use of all gillnets (which inadvertently catch vaquitas and drown them), canada goose replica an unparalleled effort to save a species often referred to as the “Mexican panda” or “panda of the sea.”
Can Mexico save the endangered vaquitas?
Supported by a $70 million compensation plan for the affected Canada Goose online fishing communities, the plan also called for boosting the use of fishing gear safe for vaquitas (small trawls to catch shrimp, and fish traps), in order to allow impoverished fishermen cheap Canada Goose and their families to make a living more sustainably. The problem is that President Pea Nieto’s commitment to crack down on the illegal fishing of totoaba a large fish that lives only in the Gulf of California and is listed by Mexico, the United States and the Convention on Trade of canada goose coats on sale Endangered Species (CITES) as endangered did not materialize.
No one hunts vaquitas directly, but when vaquitas are entangled and die in gillnets, it’s https://www.canadagoosejacketca.ca because those gillnets are set to catch totoaba, Canada Goose Parka and also shrimp and other fish. Fishermen target the totoaba for its swim bladder, which is prized in Asian cultures for making soup. I have stressed to President Pea Nieto that if the totoaba fishery does not stop, the fate of the vaquita will be sealed along with it.
Fisherman arrested after whale shark death sparks online outrage
Not only has totoaba fishing continued, but it actually increased wildly this year. And this happened despite the dozens of marines, boats, helicopters, raids on 2018 canada goose outlet land and sea, and even drones that buy canada goose jacket patrolled the region.
To make matters worse, efforts to scale up the use of the vaquita safe fishing techniques have also failed. The agencies responsible for fisheries management did not deliver what the President had asked of them. Several of the fishermen they selected to be financially compensated to stop fishing with gillnets allegedly continued to fish for totoaba, and the majority of fishermen chosen to use the vaquita safe nets did not know how to or were not committed to fishing in this way.