Mexico to save the world's rarest marine mammal
Mexico to save the world's rarest marine mammal
Posted on 19 August 2013
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Vaquita or Gulf of California Harbor porpoise (Phocoena
sinus) caught in fishing nets, Baja California, Mexico.
© National Geographic Stock/Flip Nicklin/Minden
Pictures / WWF [/font]
The Mexican Government is to implement sustainable fishing practices to reduce threats to the critically-endangered vaquita porpoise, regarded as the world’s smallest and rarest marine mammal. Numbering less than 200 individuals, the vaquita is found only in the Gulf of California on Mexico’s west coast, where it is threatened by drift gill nets.
A WWF petition calling for protection of the vaquita through sustainable fishing practices to enable local fishermen to continue their livelihoods gained 38,000 supporters from 127 countries. The gill nets will be substituted over a three year period with more selective nets, and fishermen trained in their use and compensated. The new regulation sets standards for shrimp fishing and defines fishing gear for different regions.
The critically endangered vaquita – a porpoise species endemic to the Gulf of California – is threatened by extinction due to fishery practice in Mexico. To save the vaquita, the Mexican government is advancing sustainable fishery practice that will also benefit communities.
Incidental death of vaquitas is due to the prevailing use of drift gillnets. Under new government measures, gillnets will be gradually substituted over a 3-year period with specialized fishing gears that preempt vaquita by-catch. The Mexican government is committed to supporting local fishermen in this transition, through training and temporary compensation programs.
More:
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/successes/?209772/Mexico-to-save-the-worlds-rarest-marine-mammal