2021: The Year That Could Save or Kill the Vaquita | Earth.Org Vaquitas only live in the northern end of Mexicos Gulf of California. A fishing boat in the Gulf of California. There are currently at least 38,500 species under threat, and over 16,300 species believed to be endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. "In a very short period of time, a series of accidental events in a certain place and time could generate the definitive disappearance of the species; the risk is imminent of continuing illegal fishing as it has been until now," said Luis Medrano Gonzlez, researcher and professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the Autonomous University of Mexico. With as few as around 10 left, the species will become extinct without a fully enforced gillnet ban throughout their entire habitat. International advocates have struggled to shift the tides. They are caught in gillnets, or walls of death, which is a curtain of netting that hangs in water and catches anything and everything that gets caught up in it, including vaquitas, who can get tangled up and drowned. . WWF is working with the Mexican government, scientists, and other partners and collaborators to protect this unique creature. 2023-05-01T10:40:59.108Z, Carlos III, the king of flowers Related to harbor porpoises, the mammals . Population status Population abundance as of 2018 was estimated at less than 19 individuals. Vaquitas Could Soon Be Extinct. Mexico Will Largely Determine Their Although it sounds like an obvious solution, scientists keep warning that the only way to conserve this species is to put an end to illegal fishing. Vaquitas also get caught in illegal nets fishermen use to catch totoaba, a large species of fish that's native to the area. Alternative fishing gear that would not entangle vaquita exists, but requires additional investment, effort, and enforcement to implement. The vaquita is the most . And a 97% drop from the year before that. 1250 24th Street, N.W. This is what happened. This indicates that the surviving animals are still reproducing. It is estimated that there are now fewer than, They are the unfortunate victims of the totoaba swim bladder trade. Specifically, its distribution range is "north of an imaginary line that connects Puertecitos in Baja California and Puerto Peasco in Sonora," according to the National Commission of Protected Areas (Conanp) of Mexico. Of the 600 mammals of the species that were estimated to be alive in 1997, only 10 of these animals are still alive today in.
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