Have you heard of the vaquita? It's a small porpoise about four to five feet, 90 to 120 pounds, and it lives in the Gulf of California, or also known as the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. And it's critically endangered. It's critically endangered because of fishing for a fish that's called the totoa alba, where the swim bladders are used for medicinal purposes over in China.
We're gonna talk about why conserving these animals and getting above the 10 individuals that they're at now, estimated to be lower than 10 individuals, why that's so important and why we need to conserve this and what we need to do to help conserve this. I'm gonna give you a breakdown of why they're critically endangered, what's been happening.
And I'm also gonna talk about some of the new technology that can help in monitoring the protection and making sure that we can get these vaquita back to a healthy state. On this episode of the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast, let's start the show. Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
And this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. Now, today's episode, we are going to be talking about the vaquita and we're gonna be talking about a fish called the Totoauba. I'm gonna break down why these two ocean animals are related and what we need to do to help protect both of these animals. We're gonna talk about new technology that can actually help us do that.
And some of the organizations that are helping out, some of them have been a controversy around them in the past, but they're actually helping out right now in the present and hopefully in the future. So we're gonna talk all about that. But before we do that, if you want to find out more about this podcast and find out more about what you can do to live for a better ocean and how to protect that ocean, just subscribe to the podcast on this YouTube channel.
Go to speakupforblue.com to find all of our other episodes. You can get it on audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your favorite podcast app. Check it out. And we have a newsletter. So check that out as well. Speakupforblue.com forward slash newsletter. You can sign up. It comes to you Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. in the morning. Check it out. It's always fun. A lot of news on how to protect the ocean. All right. Let's get back into the episode. The vaquita. Wonderful animal. Cute little thing.
They always say it has like eyeshadow around its eyes. Just got black around its eyes and it's got these black lips. Really cool animal to be able to see. Obviously very rare. Rarest marine mammal in the world. Critically endangered. Under 10 individuals. It's under 10 individuals because of gill netting for a fish called the Toto Alba. Toto Alba have the swim bladders that Asian countries really enjoy for medicinal purposes.
Even though there hasn't been any link to the fact that you can use it for medicinal use. And they'll actually help in whatever they're being helped for or they're being used for. However, they're still being caught. And now it's gotten to the point where it's a little out of control. There's a huge network of illegal wildlife trafficking because it is illegal to fish for the total Alba. It is illegal to fish for the vaquita.
But what happens essentially is when you put the gill nets in, it's basically a big net that goes down the water column. Fish swim into it. They get caught into it. And unfortunately, it can be a little bit discriminatory for certain fish. Like bigger fish will have smaller nets. You can allow the grading the actual net size or the mesh size to go through. So allow smaller fish to go through and bigger fish get caught on those gill nets. But also porpoises get caught.
You can get dolphins, some other fish like sharks, but you can also get the vaquita, which is known and it's endemic in the Sea of Cortez. And it's a big, big problem. It's taken that critically endangered species from about 95 individuals a while ago. And they just plummeted down to under 10 recently. And it's been steady for about the last 10 years or so. And there have been efforts to decrease the incentive to fish for a total Alba.
There's been efforts to monitor the Sea of Cortez, Gulf of California, to make sure that people are not fishing for total Alba using those gill nets. There's a number of problems really is when we look at it is the fact that there is a demand in Asia for the swim bladders of the total Alba. There is a reason and incentive for illegal wildlife traffickers to bring the swim bladders to Asia. There's definitely an incentive for that. There's a lot of money in it.
There is an incentive for the fishers to fish for total Alba because they get more money and fishing communities in Mexico in this area are not very rich and they can get money that can feed their family. So there's a lot of incentive to do so. The disincentive is like, we want to protect the vaquita. We want to protect also the total Alba, which is also endangered. These species are endemic to this area of the world and we want to make sure that we can protect
them. We also want to make sure that fishers can fish there for quite a long time. We also want to make sure that we decrease illegal activity and we want to make sure that there's a big education that has to be done around the conservation of total Alba to make sure that swim bladders are not in demand. So how do you do that?
Well, the first thing that the government of Mexico did was they established a 1200 kilometer square vaquita refuge in 2005 later enforce a stricter 288 kilometer squared zero tolerance area in 2020 prohibiting all boat entries. So when you try and enter that area, the enforcement is going to stop you because you're not supposed to be in that area. Patrol initiatives now patrolling is a difficult thing you were talking about even though this is a smaller bay when you talk about the
ocean. It is a pretty big area and it's really hard to track. Satellite imagery can track it, but it's also never really on the mark at the same time. It's really hard to catch the boats afterwards. Patrolling is probably your best bet. That means you require a boat there at all times. You require the boat in this protected area where the vaquitas can survive where the total Alba can survive and they can replenish.
Obviously, this zero tolerance area is probably a very important area for the vaquita. They've probably been seen there and they're not easily catchable. Let's just say they're not easily seen in terms of that's what I mean by catchable in this state because they're just elusive. They don't like to come to the surface too much and when they do, they're so small, they just kind of come down and back again, right?
So they don't want to be around. So patrolling has been difficult for the Mexican Coast Guard, but a collaboration between the Mexican Navy and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which is the controversial organization that I was talking about, has led to enhanced monitoring of illegal fishing through the use of ships, sonar, radar and drones. This is the new technology that we're
talking about here. The Sea Shepherd has upgraded its patrol vessels over the years, currently utilizing a repurposed 150 foot former petroleum vessel equipped with advanced sonar and drone capabilities to detect illegal activities and monitor vaquita populations. This is really great because you can actually send the drone out further than where the ship is, maybe hide in an area further away.
And so that any kind of fishing vessel that enters the no tolerance zone or zero tolerance zone can be caught. And if they start to fish in a protected area for the vaquita refuge, then they can actually get caught and they can enforce a punishment without having those pictures without being able to actually catch them. These fishers can be quite elusive. That would take away the element of surprise.
But having these drones really help having sonar to be able to detect fishing gear in the water is also great. You can also detect something that I didn't realize. You can also detect the mass of fish in the area so that sonar can help with that as well. Now, other organizations like the Earth League International emphasize addressing the root cause of targeting international wildlife trafficking networks and reducing the amount of total products rather than focusing solely on enforcement.
You're trying to enforce laws against the fishers, which I get, but they're not rich fishers. They're not making a ton of money off this. They're just trying to feed their families. Take away the incentive for the wildlife trafficking networks to be able to sell that. Take away the incentive for Asian communities to not want the swim bladders for total alb but also to attack it at each of the
areas. Go to the local community, invest in the local community and educate the local community on why this shouldn't happen, but also work with them. It's not just going in and saying you can't do this. This is not how we do conservation. That is not the way you go. You work with local community. You get people in the local community as champions. You start to maybe perhaps do alternative types to fishing for total alba and do different
things like that. That's been happening over time over the last couple of decades. It hasn't been completely perfect. It hasn't been completely perfect implemented in terms of taking away the incentive of catching total of there's still the money demand for that. And so you have to attack it at the wildlife trafficking network. Now that's talking about working against organized crime and basically the cartels in Mexico are scary. And that's a very difficult thing
to do. And also you're looking at educating even countries to decrease the demand. That I feel like is a way that we can really hit the demand and really decrease the demand for the swim bladders. And so what I think is going to be a way to get people to do that is to go in communities where they have these swim bladders in demand and start to talk to them and be like, you know what? You
don't need this. There's no actual indication that these have medical properties that can help you in whatever elements that you have and educate them on that. Hopefully again, working with them, not against them, but working with them. And hopefully that will come to fruition. And we see a decrease in demand, meaning everything else just can't eliminate it. And so going after the cartels is one
thing. Obviously people are going after the cartels for different reasons, but going after the cartels is a very difficult thing to do. It's scary. It's dangerous going after the fishers little bit easier, but it's still difficult because there's still that incentive for money and to be able to feed their families and get their kids to go to school. It's a very complex situation.
And unfortunately, the vaquita is suffering for it and the total out, but of course, but the vaquita suffering for less than 10 individuals in the wild. That is a difficult thing. There are no vaquitas in Capitos. So it's all in the wild. So less than 10 individuals. Hopefully we're going to start to see that increase with these types of initiatives. Technology is helping with the monitoring. Education can help with the decrease for demand.
And hopefully during that time, the wildlife traffic networks just go away and don't try sell these swim bladders and traffic these swim bladders. But that's it for today's episode. Want to give you a breakdown and update on where the vaquita is in terms of conservation. Nothing in terms of the population has been under 10 individuals for quite some time. Could be lost. We don't know. It could be higher. Like I said, they're very elusive to monitor.
But having drones, having the ability to have sonar, having ships in the area, even if it's from Sea Shepherd, this could be really helpful to get the populations back in healthy shape at some point. But that's it for today's episode. I'd love to hear what you think of this episode. You can leave a comment down below if you're on YouTube or Spotify, or you can DM me at how to protect the ocean. That's at how to protect the ocean. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast at the ocean.
App as well as on YouTube and Spotify. And thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from the true North strong and free. Have a great day. I'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.