There are less than 10 vaquitas left – they are the rarest marine mammal
on Earth and they’re dying because of fishing nets.

Call on the Mexican Government to protect vaquitas – and to ban gillnets
for good!

[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition 

   
John,

Vaquitas are cute tiny porpoises that live only in the Mexican part of the
Gulf of California. There are less than ten left in the wild and these shy
and skittish mini-whales could be completely wiped out in just a few
years, unless we act fast.

The biggest threat to vaquitas are fishing nets: they get entangled in
them and die a slow, awful death by drowning. Mexico has already banned
any form of fishing in parts of the vaquita habitat – but illegal fishing
and lost floating nets from surrounding waters are still a huge threat. To
have a chance, this tiny population needs a bigger no-tolerance-zone as
protection.

The world’s governments just agreed to pour $200 billion into protecting
our planet’s biodiversity – including Mexico. Let’s call on its government
to permanently ban all gillnets in the entire vaquita habitat and enforce
the ban rigorously, before the world’s tiniest porpoise goes extinct – add
your name:

[ [link removed] ]Government of Mexico: Ban gillnets and enforce the ban rigorously.

The vaquita population has plummeted by more than 98 percent over the last
25 years as the animals are caught and killed as bycatch in destructive
gillnets – fishing nets that are hung up vertically in the water like a
wall, trapping everything bigger than a goldfish trying to swim through
it. Just 30 years ago, 560 of these mini-whales existed – today, only
about 10 remain.

When Mexico banned the use of gillnets in parts of the Gulf of California
back in 2017, it was a last ditch effort – and it has helped stop the
species from going extinct at the last second. But the no-tolerance-zone
is small, and illegal gillnet fishing is still rampant – plus, lost or
discarded floating nets from surrounding waters are an additional threat
to these last vaquitas.

There are plenty of alternative fishing methods, and conservationists
agree that this is the last chance for the vaquita: if Mexico doesn’t
expand the protected area to the species’s original range, and ban gillnet
fishing completely and permanently, this beautiful little whale will be
forever gone in a matter of years. Join our call now:

[ [link removed] ]Government of Mexico: Ban gillnets in the entire original vaquita
habitat and enforce the ban rigorously.



[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition 



Thanks for all that you do,
Rosa and the team at Ekō


More information:

[ [link removed] ]Mexico must save the vaquita from gill nets
Science 01 August 2024
[ [link removed] ]Fishers decry ‘underhanded’ new initiative to protect Mexico’s vaquita
Mongabay 01 May 2024
[ [link removed] ]The Population of Vaquita Porpoises Has Dwindled to Ten, but a Rebound
Isn’t Out of the Question
Smithsonian Magazine 11 May 2022

 

 

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