Will This Be the Last Goodbye for the World’s Smallest Cetacean?
The battle for Mexico’s vaquita porpoise conservation (from 1987 to present)
∘ A very unique species
∘ From being described in 1987 to critically endangered in 1996
∘ The totoaba’s poaching
∘ Conservation efforts and current status of the vaquita
∘ Final thoughts
A very unique species
Before discovering a skull on a beach north of Punta San Felipe in Baja California, Mexico, in 1950, the vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus) was an unknown species to science [1].
The external appearance of the vaquita couldn’t be fully described until 1986 [2]. It was found to be a species with an average size of 1.5m (4.9 ft) and 50 kg (110.231 lbs), which immediately made it the smallest living cetacean species in the world.
The known records confirmed that it was an endemic species of the upper quarter of the Gulf of California [3, 4].
The word “vaquita” means “little cow” in Spanish. There is no clear explanation about the origin of its common name, but it may refer to the fact that the species is small and robust; its belly is white, and it has black around its mouth and eyes.
From being described in 1987 to critically endangered in 1996
Coinciding with the scientific description of the vaquita porpoise, it was reported that individuals were often caught as bycatch in artisanal and commercial fisheries.
Most of the bycatch occurred through gillnet fishery for the totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi). An endemic species of the Gulf of California also similar in size to the vaquita.
Nylon gillnets were being used to catch totoaba by the early 1940s, so it can be assumed that the vaquita population was already declining since then [5].
This situation was acknowledged by the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission in 1990, and vaquita’s conservation status quickly changed to Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List.
However, by 1996 the vaquita conservation status was upgraded to Critically Endangered.
The vaquita porpoise has been listed in Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) since 1979. It has also been listed as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act (1985) and on the Mexican Red list (NOM-059) (1994).
The species is currently one of the most endangered mammals in the world, and it is estimated that there are fewer than 20 adult vaquitas left alive [6].
The totoaba’s poaching
It seems almost unbelievable that totoaba fishing was allowed to continue despite what was already known in the 1980s about the vaquita’s endangered status. Still, this situation has evolved into an international problem and locally more related to Mexican organized crime groups that have moved their drug trafficking operations to specific parts of the illegal totoaba trade [7,8,9].
It has been illegal to catch totoaba in Mexico since 1975 (NOM-059).
In an attempt to stop its international trading, the species also has been listed in CITES Appendix 1 (1976), and in the US Endangered Species List (1979).
But the totoaba trade was extremely profitable. Totoaba fisheries increased due to an experimental effort by a Korean processor to meet the demand for swim bladders in the Asian market [9].
The totoaba swim bladder is a valuable commodity, as it is considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine with medicinal properties [check out this video].
This market was initially being focused on a native fish, the Chinese bahaba (Bahaba taipingensis) however, it was overharvested, and as its population depleted, the trade shifted to its Mexican relative, the totoaba.
The dried totoaba swim bladders are so valuable that they are referred to as the “cocaine of the sea”, because they can be sold for as much as US $100,000 on the black market [10].
As totoaba becomes less abundant, its current price could rise even higher.
Conservation efforts and current status of the vaquita
In 1997, the Mexican Government created the International Committee for the Recovery of Vaquita (known in Spanish as CIRVA). It was composed of scientists from Europe, North America, and Mexico focused on advising the government on conservation actions.
Early attempts were few and mainly focused on establishing a reserve (1993) and a gillnet exclusion zone (vaquita refuge) where fishing was completely prohibited (2005).
Over the following years (from 2005 to 2013) there were several national plans and programs focused on protecting the vaquita, but most of them lacked real actions and were ineffective [11, 12].
In 2014, a catastrophic decline in the vaquita population was linked to a dramatic increase in demand for totoaba. This situation prompted a temporary two-year ban of most fisheries, which was made permanent in 2017.
Economic programs to compensate affected fishermen and efforts to develop more sustainable fishing methods were increased.
At this point, the Mexican Navy had already assumed responsibility to prevent totoaba fishing and protect the vaquita.
Despite these efforts, the exorbitant income derived from totoaba fueled illegal fishing, and the decline of the vaquita’s population continued.
In 2017, the lack of effective actions by the authorities drew so much international attention that Leonardo DiCaprio met with the Mexican ex-president at that time Enrique Peña Nieto to sign a document in an attempt to reaffirm the government’s commitment to protecting the vaquita [17].
By this time, CIRVA conducted an emergency field rescue effort to remove the vaquita from the dangers caused by continued exposure to gillnets until their natural habitat was safe for them to be returned [18].
This project was called “Vaquita CPR” (CPR: conservation, protection, and recovery) [18]. The rescue effort involved 90 experts from 9 countries and cost over US $5 million.
However, the team decided to suspend capture efforts after catching two porpoises. A juvenile was released four hours later because it appeared stressed, and an adult female died of capture myopathy.
Finally, the program was suspended because of the risk of additional mortalities.
Over the last years, fishermen still received a stipend to stay off the water. But after Mexico’s current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, assumed office in 2018, that program ended and the authorities have tolerated gillnets again [19, 20].
By 2020, the pandemic has further complicated the situation and delayed conservation actions [20].
Final thoughts
It is a challenging and sad situation for the Mexican vaquita porpoise, but the battle for its conservation has not yet been lost.
Recent studies (2021) show that the species appears viable and still maintains the genetic diversity of a healthy population [21, 22, 23]. But it would be necessary to stop gillnet fishing so that the vaquita population can recover.
Over the years, the main reason that is causing the vaquita’s extinction has been the denial and the delay in dealing with the problem of bycatch.
In my personal opinion, it is almost impossible to completely stop totoaba’s poaching, and therefore, the government should strengthen other conservation measures besides the fishing ban to address this problem.
Alternative local conservation actions include the development of totoaba aquaculture technologies, more sustainable fishing methods, and offsetting economic policies [13, 16, 24].
The vaquita’s range is restricted to a remote region where fishing provides the only source of income for poor local communities [3, 4].
How can we expect the fishing ban to work as a conservation measure if many local people need to fish to support their families?
The inefficiency of past and current conservation actions is the result of the government’s limited vision of sustainable development.
Saving the vaquita requires improving the state’s engagement with local communities to meet the needs of both people and ecosystems, but the government hasn’t yet provided a real solution to support fishing families and prevent them from falling into illegal fishing.
Some fishers with few alternatives turn to totoaba poaching and illegal fishing, risk becoming further trapped by debt to drug cartels [16].
Attempting to summarize the totoaba poaching problem as a simple criminal activity ignores important underlying social injustices that affect local people and drive the vaquita to extinction [16].
The current Mexican government appears to have stopped the gillnet fishing ban because it has not been successful. Still, will other local conservation measures prevent the vaquita from going extinct?
I don’t have an answer.
Meanwhile, the future of the Mexican vaquita porpoise remains uncertain.
If you want to learn about the Mexican vaquita porpoise, you can find more information in the following links [1, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26].
Let me know your opinion in the comments.
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