Scientists with Vaquita CPR returned the first captured
vaquita into Mexico’s
Gulf of California in
mid-October. photo: Mexican Secretariat/OENR
With approximately 23 vaquita porpoises left on earth, team uses novel sonar scanning technology to find illegal nets in Mexico's Gulf of California
(PRNEWS/USNEWS) NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2017 - World Animal Protection, the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA), and Monterey Bay Diving joined forces with local fishermen in San Felipe, Mexico earlier this month to locate illegal gillnets in critical vaquita porpoise habitat. The vaquita porpoise is the world's most critically endangered marine mammal with just an estimated 23 individual vaquitas remaining in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Illegal fishing activity and the resulting abandoned gillnets, also known as ghost nets, are the single biggest cause of the vaquita's near eradication.
