• About
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
    • Meet our Donors
    • News
  • Issues
    • Safety
    • Opportunity
    • Reporting
    • Recognition
    • Equity
  • Programs
    • Reporting Fellowships
      • Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship
      • ¡Exprésate! LGBTQI+ Reporting Initiative
      • Gender Justice Reporting Initiative
      • Global Health Reporting Initiative
      • Round Earth Media
    • Grants & Funds
      • Fund For Women Journalists
      • Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on MMIWG2T
      • Kari Howard Fund for Narrative Journalism
      • Kim Wall Memorial Fund
      • Reproductive Rights Reporting Fund
      • Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice in the Americas
    • Physical & Digital Safety
      • Online Abuse and Harassment
      • Hostile Environment Training
      • Next Gen Safety Trainers
      • Women in Politics and Media
    • Mentorship & Professional Development
      • Gwen Ifill Mentorship Program
      • Fellowship Program for Afghan Women Journalists in Exile
    • Emergency Assistance
      • Emergency Fund for Women Journalists
      • Black Journalists Therapy Relief Fund
      • Alex Duval Smith Memorial Fund
    • Past Programs
  • Reporting
  • Community
  • Awards
    • Anja Niedringhaus Award
    • Courage in Journalism Award
    • Gwen Ifill Award
    • Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award
  • Resources
    • Self Care & Trauma
    • Research
    • Impact Reports
    • Webinars
  • Search
Search Donate
Reporting

Adios, vaquita marina? Mexico’s ‘little sea cow’ is being pushed to the edge of extinction

April 12, 2017 | Mónica Ortiz Uribe | PRI

It’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time, except it has nowhere else to go.

The vaquita marina – the little sea cow – is the world’s smallest porpoise. It lives only in the far-northern Gulf of California, just east of Mexico’s Baja peninsula, right where local fishermen are in hot pursuit of a very valuable creature. And its unfortunate fate has it on the brink of extinction.

“The vaquita marina [is] a source of pride for many in Mexico,” says American marine biologist Peggy Turk, who works on the Gulf of California. It’s a knobby-nosed creature about 4 and a half feet long, with clown-like dark accents around its eyes and mouth. It’s a very shy animal that few people have ever seen alive. And it exists nowhere else in the world.

“Nobody wants to kill the vaquita,” Turk says. “It just happens to live in the same place that fishermen are fishing with gill nets.”

What they’re fishing for is another endangered species – a mammoth fish called the totoaba that can weigh as much as 200 pounds. Many Chinese believe the totoaba’s swim bladder has medicinal powers, and they’re worth big bucks in Asia. A single bladder can sell for up to $10,000 in China.

It’s illegal to catch totoabas, but the temptation can be irresistible. And the gill nets local fisherman use to snag them also trap and kill other marina life, including the vaquita. After years of this fishing, scientists now estimate there are as few as 30 vaquitas left.

Mexican authorities have created a no-fishing zone in the area and imposed a temporary ban on gill nets, which environmental activists are pushing to make permanent. Across the border, the US Attorney’s office in San Diego has cracked down on smugglers who ship totoaba bladders from US ports to Asia. Since 2013 at least seven people have been convicted and more cases are pending.

Still, illegal fishing continues. In the past year, the marine activist group the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society reports pulling more than 200 illegal nets from waters of the no-fishing zone.

“Many fishermen have no choice but to turn to illegal fishing,” says Marcos García, a lifelong fisherman who lives in the local port town of Puerto Peñasco. “Amongst ourselves we ask, ‘who will disappear first, us or the vaquita?'”

García says the no-fishing zone has hurt local communities, some of which rely almost entirely on fishing. Mexico funds a compensation program for fisherman, but García says it’s rife with corruption.

The situation has created a climate of tension and fear among locals.

Government inspectors charged with patrolling the no-fish zone weren’t authorized to talk, but say they’re being watched by what they call “bad people.” In March a mob of angry fishermen reportedly set fire to their patrol cars and boats. Some of the inspectors were physically beaten.

Meanwhile, out in the waters of the gulf, time is running out for the vaquita marina. In a last-ditch effort to save the species, Mexico announced in January that it will capture some of the porpoises and hold them in a sea pen until it’s safe for them to return to the wild.

This story was produced with support from the International Women’s Media Foundation.

About the Author

Mónica Ortiz Uribe

Mónica Ortiz Uribe is a Senior Field Correspondent (Las Cruces) for Fronteras Desk. Ortiz is a native of El Paso, Texas, where she recently worked as a freelance reporter. Her… Read More.

Original Publication
PRI
Related Topics
Business
Environment
More From This Author
Mexico And U.S. Team Up To Create Low-Cost Wheelchairs

Sign Up For Our Mailing List

Mission

We unleash the potential of women journalists as champions of press freedom to transform the global news media.

Address

1625 K Street NW, Suite 1275
Washington, DC 20006, USA

Contact Us

info@iwmf.org
(+1) 202-496-1992

Connect
Privacy Terms of Service

Copyright © 2023 International Women's Media Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
Nonprofit Web Design by NMC.