Science and Human Dimension of Vaquita Conservation: Challenges and Opportunities for Saving the World's Most Endangered Cetacean - Livestream

The Upper Gulf of California is a diverse and highly productive ecosystem supporting some of the most important fisheries in Mexico, yet a history of weak fisheries management and illegal fishing threaten the area’s biodiversity and undermine human well-being in the communities along its shores. The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is endemic to these waters and is on the brink of extinction due to incidental entanglement in gillnets used in small-scale fisheries. Although gillnets are banned by the government of Mexico in the vaquita’s range, their use is driven by valuable shrimp and finfish fisheries, and a lucrative black market for swim bladders of totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi). There is long-standing lack of support for development and implementation of alternative fishing gear and livelihoods. A recent effort to deploy anti-gillnet devices (concrete blocks with hooks designed to entangle gillnets) has bought crucial time. The complexity of the economic, social, technical, and policy issues in the region requires a holistic, multidisciplinary approach in order to find regionally relevant solutions for saving the vaquita and supporting local fishing communities. The presentation will review the biology and plight of the vaquita, present abundance estimates from the latest field efforts, and summarize conservation actions with a focus on efforts to develop alternative fisheries with the local fishing communities. Sustained actions to support legal fishers able to make a good living - with a direct stake in healthy marine ecosystems - are key components of conservation policy. The situation in the Upper Gulf of California is dire, yet similar threats to other endangered species and the well-being of coastal communities may benefit from the experience of the vaquita. Recent observations of the few remaining healthy vaquitas and calves provide hope and heighten the imperative to act.   

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Speaker: Sarah Mesnick, NOAA