Mexico City (AP) — Conservation group Sea Shepherd allows the Mexican government to return to the Gulf of Mexico to save the endangered vaquita, but the group removes illegal gill nets He said he would not allow it. ..
This shows sovereignty and fishing concerns, as well as the latest Mexican government movements that appear to give equal weight to the fate of the world’s most endangered marine mammals. Of the elusive porpoises, only about 10 are believed to remain in the bay, the only place they live, and cannot be bred or bred in captivity. ..
Mexico has been doing relatively little for years to counter violent attacks by poachers on environmentalist ships, while removing most of the illegal nets that capture and drown vaquitas. I’ve been dependent on Sea Shepherd. The group estimates that it has removed about 1,000 long and heavy nets in the last six years.
However, environmentalists were forced to leave the Gulf, also known as the Cortez Sea, in January after a New Year’s Eve attack when fishermen boated a Sea Shepherd ship. One of the fishermen reportedly died after being injured in the attack.
Since then, the task of finding and removing nets has been largely left to the Mexican Navy, who rarely stopped fishermen from netting and catching Totoaba. kilogram).
The new agreement leaves the net removal process to Mexico’s infamous and unreliable National Fisheries Commission, which promotes fishing.
Sea Shepherd said it would advise the Marines on the nets it found, based on an agreement announced Thursday but signed in August, adding that “nets will be recovered and delivered by the Mexican Aquaculture Commission.” ..
Sea Shepherd President Pritam Singh praised the agreement, saying, “It will allow Sea Shepherd ships to return to Upper Gulf and give Bakita a chance to fight for survival.” However, the agreement seems to reflect President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador’s aversion to foreign intervention and his desire to balance the interests of fishermen and endangered species.
“We don’t have to teach foreigners what to do or impose sanctions on fishermen in our country,” Lopez Obrador said in June. He argued that “we can reach an agreement to pursue a balance between fishing and production activities and take care of the species.”
That attitude appeared to be behind the government’s July decision to abandon its policy of maintaining a fishing-free zone around the small area holding the last remaining vaquita.
The announced measures will replace the non-fishing “zero tolerance” zone in the upper bay with a sliding scale of punishment if more than 60 vessels are seen multiple times in the area.
Given that Mexico was unable to enforce its current restrictions (banning boats in tight areas), the sliding scale punishment also seems to be destined to be pointless. For example, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries states that if there are 20 or less fishing vessels in the restricted area, 60% of the executive personnel will be used.
The agreement announced Thursday appears to be an attempt to avoid attacks on the vessels of targeted conservationists, even when Mexican Navy personnel are on board.
Because seized nets are expensive, fishermen often harass conservation activist boats and try to get them back. Fishermen claim that they have not received compensation from the Mexican government for lost fishing income. The group representing the fishermen could not comment immediately.
The Mexican Environment Agency has previously stated that the decline in vaquita numbers and the areas in which they have been seen in recent years justifies reducing the protected areas that once covered much of the upper bay in theory.
Formally known as the Bakita “Reserve”, the zone begins around the Colorado River Delta and extends south past the fishing village of San Felipe to near Puerto Penasco.
However, as the number of vaquitas fell to dozens and then to less than a dozen, scientists and environmentalists made the final groove in the “zero tolerance” zone, a much smaller area where the last vaquita was seen. I decided to stand.
Their numbers are confirmed by underwater listening devices that graph animal squeaks and barks, even if visual sightings are rare.
Mexico allows limited return of activists to help porpoises | WGN Radio 720
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