May
22Pick/Protect 21: the Vaquita
Filed Under (Pick/Protect 21, conservation) by Alexa & Cindy on 22-05-2010
Tagged Under : conservation, Documentaries, videos, You Can Make a Differnece
Ocean Lovers, we hope your are enjoying your weekend.
Day 18 of our backwards countdown to World Oceans Day called Pick/Protect 21 is here (we realized we started a day early, so we took yesterday off!) and we want to introduce you to the smallest member of the cetacean family of marine mammals:
the Vaquita.
Vaquita - The Search for the Desert Porpoise from Chris Johnson on Vimeo.
Why you should pick them:
Pint-sized Vaquitas (Phonoceona sinus) are the smallest of the six porpoise species, and live only in the northern parts of the Gulf of California, Mexico.
Vaquita is Spanish for “little cow,” and this porpoise is so rarely seen that scientists first recognized it by discovering some skulls in 1958. Vaquita was not even sighted by scientists and fully described until 1985.
Vaquitas grow to only about 4′11″ in length and average 90-110 pounds at full maturity. Their flippers are larger than those of their porpoise cousins, and their dorsal fins are taller.
Vaquitas are also quite different looking than any of the five other porpoises: their skin is dark grey on their backs, fading to light grey on the sides and white on the belly. They also have black rings around their eyes, a black stripe from chin to flipper, and a black-lipped “smile.”
They live in groups of 2 to 10, and females give birth about every two years.
Very little is factually known about the Vaquita, because it’s hard to spot and hard to track.
They hate boats, do not often do the aerial acrobatics their fellow cetaceans (especially dolphins) are well-known for, and they rise slowly to the surface to breath, almost rolling with the waves before disappearing beneath the surface again, almost invisible.
Why they need protecting:
Simple – there are only about 200 left. And that’s it.
As cute, mysterious and elusive as they are, the Vaquita can’t hide from man’s perils – mainly gillnets, put out by fisherman trying to catch the United States’ most popular seafood: shrimp.
It’s estimated that between 39 and 84 Vaquitas a year die in gillnets. The Vaquita need 50 animals a year to maintain a healthy population that can reproduce itself. The math obviously isn’t good.
How you can protect them:
Vaquitas are not hunted or purposely targeted, but they are being destroyed by a serious problem for all cetaceans and many other forms of sea life: bycatch.
More people need to be educated about the dangers of bycatch in commercial fishing, and Chris Johnson, the filmmaker behind the documentary “Vaquita: Search for the Desert Porpoise” highlights this problem both in the film and on the web. Check out his website for more on the Vaquita, what’s being done, and what you can do to get involved.
I gill netted for many years before the net ban in Fla devestated the fishing industry,I also listened to old timers who had fished all the way back to the 20s and none of us had ever caught a porpoise in a gill net.I have watched with amazement as they picked fish out,get their fill and go over a net or under it.They truly are very intelligent.
I am trying to figure out just where one of these creatures would get caught in a net as gill nets are banned in Texas and Fla and used very limited in La. Miss. and Al,mostly inshore and in the winter time.I think you are stirring the pot about something that is almost impossible to happen but we are used to that,spreading unfounded rumours and hearsay to the point that they are so wide spread that everybody thinks they must be true. SAD
The manatee needs to be protected because the manate swims were there are boats so when they get to close to the boats propellers cut them and that is a way for the manate to die which is sad. Actually it’s sad for all the animals of any kind to be killed by man and be eaten like with the shark fin soup, that it disgusting that they just catch a shark cut their fin off and put them back into the ocean and go away like nothing happened to it. Now what I say here is no offense to hunters or indians especially the indians because when they were around there weren’t factories to make food for them. was And if they were vegitarians, well, they ate leaves but if they didn’t like the taste they starved or to end their misery they killed them i mean how did they know they wouldn’t get better before their time was up, but the saddest thing to see to be put to death are animals like deer. My grandma and I don’t eat deer meat and I don’t eat fish. I don’t like the stores because they buy it from factories and the factories get it from fishermen and the fishermen get from the oceans or lakes and when the fish reach the stores they don’t bother to open the fish package up and take the eyes out, they just keep them in and that is disgusting.
sorry i got carried away
Thank you for your comment, Ronnie. What is your theory on why Vaquitas are dying? ~Alexa
That’s OK, Payton, we think you have some serious points right there. ~Alexa
Payton, fyi, our Pick/Protect 21 post tomorrow will be on Manatees, so make sure you check it out!