• Vaquita population decline has accelerated, 49 % 2015-16 • September 2016 30 vaquitas remain • Gillnet ban to expire in April 2017 CIRVA warns that accidental drowning in gillnets is rapidly driving the vaquita (Phocoena sinus) toward extinction. Previous research showed that the vaquita had declined from around 570 in 1997 to 250 in 2008. The vaquita is the most endangered marine mammal, indeed one of the most endangered mammals, in the world. recovered, yielding 41 days of sampling data and a single day with vaquita detections. In 2016, surface buoys were used to mark each sampling site, resulting in greatly improved efficiency in checking CPODs and retrieving data. The spatial pattern of vaquita occurrence has been fairly consistent since monitoring began in 2011, although the
recovered, yielding 41 days of sampling data and a single day with vaquita detections. In 2016, surface buoys were used to mark each sampling site, resulting in greatly improved efficiency in checking CPODs and retrieving data. The spatial pattern of vaquita occurrence has been fairly consistent since monitoring began in 2011, although the vaquita is the marine mammal species most likely to go extinct.2 The primary threat is entanglement in gillnets set to catch shrimp and fish, primarily for U.S. markets. At the Commission’s May 2011 annual meeting, Mexican officials described their Action • Expansion of the area of the Vaquita Refuge • Two year suspension of fishing activities that represent risk to vaquitas (esp. gillnets) • Compensation to licensees, fishermen and other workers in the shrimp, finfish and shark fisheries • Community-based surveillance and enforcement scheme Department of State’s budget for energy and the environment to recover the vaquita, a small porpoise found only in the northern Gulf of California. The species numbers about 150 individuals and is teetering at the very brink of extinction. The major threat is. California porpoise or vaquita (Phocoena sinus), the most endangered of all cetacean species. The vaquita is undergoing a catastrophic decline as a result of entanglement and drowning in gillnets used in the illegal fishery for a large fish species, the totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), in the Upper Gulf of California, Mexico.
• Expansion of the area of the Vaquita Refuge • Two year suspension of fishing activities that represent risk to vaquitas (esp. gillnets) • Compensation to licensees, fishermen and other workers in the shrimp, finfish and shark fisheries • Community-based surveillance and enforcement scheme Department of State’s budget for energy and the environment to recover the vaquita, a small porpoise found only in the northern Gulf of California. The species numbers about 150 individuals and is teetering at the very brink of extinction. The major threat is. California porpoise or vaquita (Phocoena sinus), the most endangered of all cetacean species. The vaquita is undergoing a catastrophic decline as a result of entanglement and drowning in gillnets used in the illegal fishery for a large fish species, the totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), in the Upper Gulf of California, Mexico. This independent committee has been charged with improving existing vaquita-safe fishing technologies (such as the small trawl to catch shrimp and traps and other gear for fish) to substitute gillnets which will be permanently prohibited starting September in the Upper Gulf of California, the only place on Earth where the vaquita exists.